The Art of Magic (contest entry)

Chapter One

Dear Nicholas,

How is Soqura? I miss you. Father and Matthew send letters. They say that the wars are difficult but that they are taking a lead. I am glad that they are winning and will hopefully survive the rough winter. I made this gorgeous new dress that you have to see when you get back. I miss you. Things back here are the same as always. If you meet Prince Alexander, tell him your close friend says hello. I can't wait to see you again. I wish you were here. Nobody listens as well as you do. Have you ever wondered what it would be like to go on an adventure? I have. I think it would be scary yet exciting. I hope that one day, when I'm older, I'll get the chance to go on one.

"Aza, you've got to get back to work," Aza's mother called from her workstation across the room.

"I know, I know. Just give me a minute," she told her. "I have to finish this."

"You've been working on writing that letter to Nicholas for thirty minutes when it should have taken three."

"Okay," Aza said. "I get it, but you know, it's Nicholas, and ever since he left for Soqura I've been missing my best friend. Two months without Nicholas is hard," Aza told her mother, her face turned down in a frown. "Matthew and father being at war hasn't helped either."

"I understand." She sounded sincere, her eyes concerned as they peered into Aza's. "And I know that you want to make this letter perfect because it is Nicholas, but you have a dress to finish that is due tomorrow. You know how Mrs. Smithson gets when her dresses aren't finished."

"I get it," Aza reassured her, hoping to convince her loving yet strict mother. "The letter is almost done. Look, it's complete." She added her name to the bottom of the paper and closed the envelope with a wax seal. She had been planning to write for a bit longer but she knew that her mother would be unhappy so she sped up the project.

"Well, good. I will take that to the postbox while I am sending my letter to your father and brother."

"Thank you, mother."

"You're welcome. Now get back to work!"

***

A few hours later Aza's mother left to go and send a letter to her brother, Matthew, and her father. She came back looking like she had been crying. No, not crying, sobbing.

"What's wrong mother?"

"I-it's your b-b-brother. H-he's b-been k-k-k-killed."

At that moment Aza noticed a letter in her mother's hand and saw the official wax seal from the royal family of Trellia. Her heart pounded in her chest as she took the letter from her mother's shaking hands and opened it only to find that her mother's words had been true.

Dear friends and family of Matthew Peterson

We send this letter to inform you that Matthew Peterson has fallen in battle. We send our condolences that the life of this man has been taken by those cruel magicians. We assure you that if there was anything we could've done to stop these people from harming our citizens, we would have. But alas, the only way to accomplish that is to continue to fight with all we have until this dreadful war has passed.

Signed King John, Queen Taylor, Prince Alexander, and Princess Arianna

"No! No, no, no, this can't be happening!" Tears flooded down her face as she rushed out the door. She didn't know where she was going, she just knew that she had to get out of that place. The place where she and Matthew had grown up together and shared so many memories. The place where they had said goodbye knowing full well that he might never come back. But thinking back, she realized that she'd always had hope, even when she knew that she shouldn't. They hadn't gotten along all the time but she still loved him and missed him already. She remembered the time that she had fallen out of a tree and scraped her knee, her parents had been working so Matthew helped her and bandaged up the wound. The time when she'd been sad because her pet had died and he comforted her through the night. She would even miss their arguments. How could she live without him? How could she deal with all of this sadness and heartbreak?