Burned

1.01: The Beginning

WITH THE FLAMES IN HER EYES, SHE BURNED.

Before I'm going to start telling everyone an innocent girl's life story, I'm first going to tell you that I'm not going to keep this report objective as I was asked to. Most of the decisions and actions are based off emotions. I'm going to write everything down the way the subject, Artemis, experienced it. This is crucial, because this is the whole life of just a teenage girl and I'm not going to be the one who'll rob her from every single drop of privacy she still has.

This report is based on several aspects. There's Artemis's explanation, which will be the main aspect in this report. I will also keep Peter's point of view in the back of my head and both Morgan's and Harley's will also be used. I have also asked Wanda to tell me her part of the story, which isn't that much, but used nonetheless. Loki was unreachable. I've tried to contact him, also via Thor Odinson, but it didn't deliver any results.

If this report has to be understandable, there has to be a little more explanation here.

People with magic are either a Witch or a Sorcerer, depending on your gender. They don't believe in such thing as genderless or changing genders. In fact, nobody there is LGBTQ+ so there weren't any terms for such identifications. Therefore there were also two communities: the Witches Community and the Sorcerers Community. They were separated, but several times a year they would have meetings and every special occasion would involve a party between the two.

On one of those parties Hestia and Athenos met. It wasn't a real spark at first, it was more a rebellious action as the Communities were very strict. The act of rebellion wasn't even that rebellious since there was no rule against it, but it was really rare for a Witch and a Sorcerer to fall in love, let alone marry and get children. So, they were more interested in each other than they were in love. They shared phone numbers and address, kept in touch ever since that one particular party.

One thing led to another. Hestia and Athenos began to hang out more whenever they could, which wasn't very often because of their duties in their Communities. Athenos was a wise man, maybe even the wisest in his Community, the reason why he was the Council's most important consultant. The Council was the leading board of the Community, existing out of seven Witches or seven Sorcerers. Hestia, on the other hand, was a people person and was amazing at reading and placing emotions, causing her to be the Community's "psychologist" even if that wasn't a real job.

Two years later the two magic people got married, a special occasion. The two moved in and not much later Hestia got pregnant with a baby. Her rebellious fase ended the second she saw the stripes on her pregnancy test, just as Athenos got more responsible when his wife told him. They were determined to be good parents, to let their child live the life they originally wanted. Full of adventure, love and safety.

The Sorcerers Community was more open than the Witches Community. When Athenos told the council and the rest of the Community he wanted to work less and take care of his wife and soon-to-be-born baby, there obviously was some fuss, but they respected his decision. Mostly also because they trusted him with it, seeing as he was the wisest man in their community. Their agreement was that he could work less, but not dramatically little. The work he didn't want to do there, he would do at home.

The Witches Community was more difficult, however. Hestia told the Community that she wanted to stay home with her child the first few months so she could take care of them. The Council denied the request. But, because of Hestia's amazing people skills, she had a lot of friends and allies among the Witches. They began to revolve against the Community. Before it grew out to be drastic, the Council eventually gave in and let Hestia stay home for the first six months.

Mid September, still in the summer, Hestia gave birth to a beautiful babygirl called Artemis Diana Metanoia, named after the Greek goddess of hunting. She was abnormally beautiful with her softly shining brown hair and her mesmerising big green eyes. Those eyes reminded her parents of . Maybe that was also the reason why Artemis always laughed with her sweet baby laugh when she was watching Bambi, even though she didn't fully understand it yet.

But, as Artemis grew older, her dad grew wiser and her mom grew more sympathetic. At the age of three, Athenos and Hestia knew that something was up with their Communities. Athenos found a classified case, a case with his daughter's name on it. His eyes widened, knowing that there was something wrong. He hurried home. When he opened the front door, he yelled out his wife's name, but got no response other than his daughter still crying from her room.

Athenos rushed to Artemis's room as any good father would. He took the little girl from her bed. While he wiped her tear stained cheeks, he slowly managed to calm the toddler down. Athenos knew that something was terribly wrong. He knew his wife well enough to know that she wouldn't leave little Artemis here all by herself without notifying him first. Once he had hushed Artemis to sleep again, he took place beside her bed and opened the classified file. With every letter he read, his heart broke and the once wise man filled with kindness became more raged than he had ever been.

Being human meant having weak spots. Being a parent meant that your child was your weak spot. The Communties were after Artemis, something both Athenos and Hestia noticed. Athenos noticed it just a little bit too late. No Sorcerer was allowed on the Witches Community's ground, just as Witches couldn't go to the Sorcerers Community. This time Athenos didn't care about that stupid, stupid rule. Together with Artemis, whom he didn't want to leave alone, he went to the Council, angrier than ever.

Athenos yelled at the elder women. He commanded them to leave his daughter alone. He screamed, asking them what they had done to the love of his life. He never got his answer. Instead, the Council took Artemis from Athenos, taking the two people he loved the most. The two people he would without hesitation sacrifice everything and anything for. From that day on, Artemis lost both her parents, the only two people who could protect her from the horrible fate she was destined to live.

As Artemis grew, she got more curious as to what happened to her parents and why. She knew the Community gave her mum amnesia which made her forget both her magical life and her daughter so Artemis couldn't visit her. She knew the Community transformed her dad into a big tree somewhere in a forest she didn't know. One day, when she was the age of twelve, she decided it was time to face the Council with her questions.

'Good afternoon, Artemis,' the eldest of the Council, the woman in the middle, greeted the girl.

'Good afternoon, ma'am,' Artemis would reply politely with a small curtsy.

'We understood you had questions,' the woman asked it more than that she stated it.

'I do, ma'am,' Artemis responded, feeling intimidated by the women. 'I was wondering... What happened to my parents?'

'You already know, dear,' the woman told her with a kind smile.

Artemis shook her head. 'I-I meant- What happened that was so bad that they were cast out and had to leave me?'

'Ah,' the old woman had replied. 'Well, my child, they wanted to leave the Community.'

'And that's punishable with death?' Artemis accidentally asked the Council directly.

'I see what you mean. No, it's not. But, Artemis, they caused a revolution between the Witches and the Sorcerers so they wouldn't have much resistance on their departure,' the woman explained to the young girl.

And Artemis believed the lie for four years. Because four years later, when Artemis was sixteen years old, she found a dusted classified file somewhere between her old baby stuff she wanted to clean up. It contained her name, so she began to read. She began to read about how she had double the potential of other Witches and Sorcerers because she came from two magical parents. She began to read about how the Communities wanted to suck out all the potential to create magic once she would come off age and offer her up to the spirits of the nature so their Community would gain more power.

Artemis read about her death.

So, Artemis placed a silver necklace with an arrow around her neck and packed one set of clothes and her Book of Spells in a backpack and ran away from the place she had called home her whole life.