Tales of Kardossi | Original Story of Fae and Witches

Chapter One

Fingernails clicked impatiently on the wooden table that sat in the center of the dining room, bright chandeliers hung from the ceiling, illuminating the room around them. The Kardossian castle dining room was the most beautiful thing Ismae Damini had ever seen, apart from the ballroom. Even though she had grown up in this very castle and she had been in this room a thousand times, it still did not seem real that she had been this privileged to stay here. It snuck into her mind sometimes that she was not really the king's daughter, that she was not worthy of way she lived here.

The castle was extravagant, the windows were from floor to ceiling, with navy curtains bunching up at the floor that were held open by gold wound ribbon and tassels on the end. The long windows looked out onto the kingdom, small villages circling the castle, merchants selling their breads and vegetables, and Kardossian's living in peace together. Despite their past, the Kardossian's were happy. At least the ones who had no memory of the war.

Ismae continued to tap her fingers on the tabletop, meanwhile her twin Aster sighed and glared in her direction causing her to look up at him. His eyebrows were pulled together in annoyance and his lip jutted out as if he wanted to say something. He did not appreciate how she was studying, constantly tapping her fingers, huffing in frustration, slamming the book down onto the wooden table, and scooting her chair back and forth every time she got uncomfortable. She continued to tap her fingernails on the table nervously even though she could tell it was beginning to bother Aster. She felt him shooting daggers at her, and grimaced hearing him sigh again and watching him read his book on warlock history in Kardossi which he had marked with his finger temporarily to look up at his sister.

"Iz? Must you do that?" He asked quickly in his Kardossian accent, his tone coming off with the obvious annoyance that he felt. He had become flustered too, studying the ways of Kardossi since there was so much history to learn. Even though he had stepped down from the throne it was still required of them to learn the history of the kingdom, so history "Did not repeat itself, "as their father had told them.

Aster and Ismae got along well, being twins had its perks and they were so much alike they tended to think alike. But due to Ismae's training she was on edge most of the time and was finding ways to cope with the ongoing pressure to do well on her exams.

"Sorry," she said in her small, meek voice, glancing back down at her own book which was dog-eared with sections and pages she needed to remember. The margins also became a home for note-taking, her own cursive handwriting bleeding into the wording on the book.

"Are you at least learning anything?" He asked, putting his book down and looking at his sister curiously. Aster had a natural way of sounding standoffish at times and appeared better than his sister in ways, their parents wouldn't agree, but the council sure would. It came off as insensitive and condescending to her; Ismae's eyebrows furrowed at him and he sighed. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it that way, sister. I know you're learning; you haven't read every book in the library for nothing." He gave her a gentle look of encouragement. "You're doing an excellent job by the way. I am rooting for you even though you need better ways of coping with stress." He said shooting a look at her that made her crack a smile.

"You're the first queen since Amestris, and that was over two hundred years ago and we're all very proud of you, me, mother and father. What seems to be bothering you with the studying?"

Ismae squinted down at her book, sighing. "We don't know about warlocks and that's what they want me to know, the council," she began, "and we never will because they don't exist anymore. How am I expected to know about something that doesn't exist? There's no history on them, it's like the pages have been ripped out." She opened the book and showed Aster the ripped edges on the inside of the book near the spine. "There's no page numbers, but you can tell there are a good number of pages missing." She shrugged.