Rift

Chapter 1

Alistair-

The day started worse than Alistair had expected. First thing in the morning he discovers he's late for class by 45 minutes . That itself is stressful, but on top of that, the driver that brought him to school was missing. Normally, it would be a 20 minute walk from his house to school, he'd walk that distance with Rosalie but he was late and didn't have the time. Alistair quickly rummaged through his clothes until he found a clean shirt to wear,Even wealthy kids had to do laundry. It was a black t-shirt with the Beatles written across the chest. His parents had given it to him thinking that wearing a Beatles shirt would make him look cool. He pulled on some jeans, not bothering to tighten them around his waste with a belt. He looked in the mirror and smoothed his chestnut brown, curly hair with his hands and bolted out the door while grabbing his backpack.

This wasn't the ideal situation, going on a full out sprint to go to a place you don't even like. Alistair would be fine with missing a day of school, it didn't bother him. But, his parents insisted that his siblings and him should get some education in the regular world and not just the magical. His older sister, Faye, had graduated high school last year with high marks, now she was on a magical trip with one of their cousins in Europe. He envied her, he was a freshman which meant three more years of stuff like this.

He bounded around a corner, it was 8:25, probably around second period by now. The part would suck the most for him would be that he didn't have a note of excuse, meaning that he'd have accept a major tardy which stinks badly. If he kept the pace he was at he'd be there in 6 minutes. He decided to take a shortcut through the park. As he ran through the pathway and into the underbrush something caught his eye. Immediately he stopped. Near some bushes he saw it clearly, legs. He maneuvered around the bushes to get a better view.

It was a girl, she wore tattered shorts and a faded dark green tank top similar to the color of pine needless, her face, fairly pretty one might add, had the expression of someone dead or passed out. The part that stood out about her that Alistair noticed most was her hair. It shone like shimmering white silver, similar to only the moon or the stars shining in the night sky. He poked her cheek.

"Hey, are you alright?" Alistair asked. He grew concerned, the girl made no response to him. He looked closely, at first it looked as though she wasn't alive, but he noticed she was taking shallow breathes."Hey are you alri-" Alistair was stopped mid sentence. Her eyes fluttered open revealing eyes just as silvery as her hair. She looked over at Alistair and immediately pushed him away, knocking him into the bushes while she backed up against a tree.

"Kto ty, ya trebuyu, chtoby znat', chto vy delali dlya menya!" The girl yelled. Based on her manner of speech she was either Polish or Russian. Alistair got up, the look on the girls face was a mixture of hatred and fear. Looking into her eyes, he saw a world as cold as ice with a faint glimmer of light.

"I'm sorry, I don't speak your language." Alistair said. Instantly the girl tensed in fear and dug her fingers into the ground. She was trying to look strong, but she was shivering.

"Otydite, vy govorite na yazyke etoy zhenshchinoy!" The girl screamed. Alistair couldn't help but feel pity and fear, this girl looked about ready to burst into tears. Alistair looked around, no one was else was in the park except the two of them. Quickly, he let his mana blaze it's brilliant sapphire color. He began chanting his spell. He kneeled down and grabbed the girls arm. She began flailing and attempted to pull his arm off.

"It's ok, I won't hurt you." Alistair said, though to her it would be heard in the language she spoke. The spell he had performed was a type of communication spell allowed the other person hear them in their native tongue as long as they touched. She calmed a bit, but the fear in her eyes still remained.

"You're not trying to hurt me?" The girl said suspiciously. He smoothed her hair with his hand which seemed to calm her a bit.

"I'm not, now tell me your name and where your from so I can help you." Alistair said. She looked a bit reluctant to tell him anything.

"My name is Ilya, I'm from a village in the far northern regions of Russia." Ilya said. Her answer seemed a bit strange. If he wasn't a Mage or that she spoke fluent Russian he would've thought she was lying to him.

"Will you come with me?" Alistair asked. " You look tired and your clothes look pretty old." Ilya looked at him carefully. She had mostly calmed down but she didn't seem to trust him.

" I do not trust you, you are both a Mage and a speaker of that strange language, just like that women." Ilya said. The way she had sad Mage sounded as though it were some kind of insult.

" I don't know what you're talking about, but I'm going to help you anyways." He grabbed her and lifted her up.

"Fine I'll go with you, but if I sense something suspicious I'll kill you and escape." The way Ilya had said that sent a chill through him.

"How about we hold hands, it'll be easier to keep the communication link than me holding your shoulder." Alistair released his grip on her shoulder and grabbed her hand. Something surprising that Alistair didn't expect happened, her face turned red and she looked away from him.

"Whatever's most convenient." Ilya said, avoiding eye contact. If she wasn't a strange emotionally unstable and homicidal girl he found in the park he might've found this adorable. The walk home was pretty quiet, they didn't talk for the whole duration. Maybe finding her wasn't so bad, he wouldn't have to go to school this way. They came up to the gate and passed through. His maid, Angelina, would kill him when she'd find Alistair like this. His parents weren't home often, usually off in some foreign country attending events and political counseling. The Sinclair's were important people in the magical world, especially to New Era Magic or NEM. Alistair opened the door, he was about to tell her to take off her shoes when he noticed she wasn't wearing any.

"I'm home!" Alistair yelled, his voice reverberating through the manor. From the expression on Ilya's face he could tell that she wasn't used to these kinds of places. Footsteps boomed against the wooden floor, emerging from the stairs, a 30 year old woman with her hair tied in a bun and wearing a maid outfit stood before the. She carefully studied the two of them quizzically.

"ALISTAIR XAVIER SINCLAIR WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS!" Her voice boomed. Standing before them was the almighty terror, Angelina. "You better explain what's going on or so help me I will slap you across the face."

"Geez, talk about extreme, look I was on my way to school when I found this girl injured in the park." Alistair looked at Ilya, this whole time she had remained silent, studying the situation. Suddenly, Angelina flicked Alistair in the forehead causing him to flinch.

"What was that for?!" Alistair shouted.

"Don't raise your voice against me, you find an injured girl and take advantage of her by holding her hand, you probably tried other things to this poor girl." Angelina responded, crossing her arms.

"Hey, I found her in the park, she didn't speak any English when I found her, she was speaking Russian, can we get over the fact that I ditched school and focus on the fact I'm helping someone?"

"Fine, come with me honey, we'll get you cleaned up." She gestured to Ilya and beckoned her foreword. Alistair looked at her and nodded, Ilya seemed less panicked and more curious. She followed Angelina.

"By the way Alistair, get back to school!" Angelina screamed. Alistair swore under his breathe and reluctantly left for school. He had helped a poor defenseless girl in the park, he could at least get some praise for that. He put his sneakers over his feet an slung his backpack over his shoulder. It was 8:57, he had a feeling today was gonna be a long day.