A Matchsticks Fate

A Matchsticks Fate: Part 1

The only word to describe what I see around me: destruction. Walls and supports crumbled to dust and shatters. What was once a beautiful, white wash stone, hand chiseled small building now lay around me completely broken to pebbles. How is this even possible? This building has been the strongest structure in Kales for the last two hundred years. Not so much as a chip had fallen off it before today. And now, by complete accident, I had brought the entire thing to the ground.

Suddenly I hear heavy and long strided footsteps. Oh, I'm in trouble. I try to turn around, but it seems my fear has taken control of my body and will not let me move. So it would seem that I would have to accept my fate without putting up a fight, how embarrassing. The footsteps came closer and closer. Wait, I know those footsteps. I turn my head to see I was right. I swing round all the way and tried to speak but I'm cut off. The figure puts up his large dark hand to silence me, literally. My voice completely vanished from me. I hate it when he does that. He walks up to me and just stares. I'm not as frightened now but the look he's giving me makes me extremely uneasy. His dark brown eyes are piercing through mine and it feels like he is trying to read my mind. I hate it when he does that too.

'What did you do?' He growls more than he speaks. Yeah, he's really mad. I try to answer but he has taken my voice so all I can do is glare at him. He raises an eyebrow and I feel my voice come back to my throat.

'I have no idea.' My voice is shaky and unsure. For some reason my voice always comes back to me soft and quiet like i've just woken up which makes it very hard to sound intimidating. 'Raiden, I don't even know what I did.'

'Of course you don't,' he looks down at me, 'you never do.'

'It's not my fault.' I try to sound like my usual tough self, but I'm still pretty shaken up. Raiden sighs and sits on a fallen pillar.

'What happened this time Jeacel?' He asks this question like he's done who knows how many times before. I think about just turning around and not saying anything, but I know I won't get two steps away from him. That's the problem with master magicians, they are too good, I don't stand a chance to get away from them. Come to think of it, that's actually pretty smart; only letting master magicians teach and preserve magic. That way there is a lot less chance of being taken over by your own students. I wonder if that's ever been tried here? Maybe I should be the first? I suddenly realize I'm lost in my own thoughts and bring myself back to bonkers reality.

I sit on the ground and start rubbing my hands together, a nervous reaction.

'I was just up at the school looking for Aleta, we were going to train here together. But she had choir practice so we decided to meet up later.' I pause, trying to remember exactly what happened next. I clear my throat and keep going. 'So I just came here on my own, apparently I wasn't the only with that idea. Mar was here too.'

'Mar?' Raiden drags out the word suspiciously.

'Hey, I was bloomin' nice to him.' I try to defend myself, 'I didn't even say anything to him. He was working on shaping on one side of the room so I decided to leave him alone and do my penetrating on the other side of the room. But Mar wasn't so considerate. He kept on throwing shaped energy at me, I couldn't concentrate. But I still didn't do anything.'

'Well, that's surprising.' Raiden crosses his arms.

'I told you I was going to try.' I tell him.

'Just not hard enough,' he looked around him at the rubble, all the prof he needed to prove me guilty. 'But keep going.'

'Well, I asked him to stop but he didn't. Then in typical Mar fashion, she started talking smack about my magic, saying it was useless and I would never learn to do it properly. And I still didn't touch him. But...he said something about...about.'