Cassandra - Book 1

1: Discovering

It is going to be my last day with my family. Lana, Tom and Ris became really close to me and I never thought the time has come for me to leave them. They are both untouchables--no magic in their blood.

As you can see, in my place there are four types of people, it used to be five; the Untouchables or sometimes called Untoucheds which are immune to any magic directly (I'm not sure but they seemed to be protected by some kind of a force, perhaps the Universe way of storing balance among non-magicians and magicians. This is how Lisie sees it.). Untouchables don't have any magic powers. There are also the Light magicians which are the good ones that harness their magical powers from the light force; and the Dark magicians, opposite of the Light magicians, who harness their powers in darkness. The next kind which are the Legacies, and I do not know much about them - all I know is that they do not exist anymore. The last one type is the Losts, they are called "created Legacies" for they are copies of them. The Losts are the most powerful today, and we are ruled by them; the Nerida family to be exact. I did not know where it all started but tomorrow's the day I'll find out everything about the Labyrinth, my world.

These are just some of the things Lisie told me. She's my neighbor-slash-bestfriend and just like me, a magician.

I just found out that I'm a magician today and the first thing my father thought was to send me to this prestigious school for magicians; the Valle Academy in the south. He immediately called them up to inform them of my discovering--the act of being identified as someone who has magical abilities. All magicians are required to attend the Academy whenever they are discovered. I never thought I would become one. My stepmother and stepfather, are both untouched and they told me that my real parents were involved in some kind of accident that killed both of them so they took me in; they told me they were untouched as well.

So when I did my first magic this morning - heal my stepfather's wound from a falling branch - we were all surprised because in order to become one, there must be someone in the parent that is a magician; it is hereditary. In our town, magicians are not frowned upon, maybe because majority of the people here are magicians. Lisie's aunt is a magician. Lana and Tom didn't really like the idea of magicians because of the danger that they bring to the normal ones, but when they met Lisie's aunt who cured Ris from his illness before, they became more accepting. However, in general, the untouchables don't like mixing up with us, and vice versa. For years, they've lived separately. That's also why we live in the very outskirts of the town full of magicians. Our household full of untouchables will not be very much welcomed if we choose to live with the townspeople who are magicians.

I ate my last dinner with Lana, Tom and Ris, my stepbrother, and finished packing my things before going to sleep. My mother kissed me good night for the last time. "Good night Cassandra."

My older stepbrother, Ris, suddenly barged in and didn't let me sleep that night. He kept asking me to play games with him. We stayed up all night until he finally fell asleep on my shoulder. I can't believe we're finally going to be separated tomorrow. We were inseparable but tomorrow, I have no choice but to leave. He was the kindest person I've known.

Whenever we visit the Town Square, people who didn't know my family would always suspects that we're dating because we don't look much alike. I have blue eyes, pale pinkish lips and a short brown hair, while he has brown eyes and dark brown hair; he looks more like my father. He once told me that no one ever dared ask my hand because they all thought he's dating me. I laughed because I never imagined myself dating anyone. We are poor and all I can think about is making our life better in the future. I guess this is it.

The next morning, Lisie, my best friend went to my house. We are both leaving together today. She always knew she's a magician, a light one because both of her parents were but unfortunately, her aunt won't let her until she reaches 18 and three days ago, she had her 18th birthday. So our parents decided to make us go together so that we can have each other when we get there because we're at the far end of the other side of the Academy. What I love about my friendship with Lisie is we both have the same age (I'm older for about 5 months) so we ended up going to the same school, being classmates for years, have the same interests. Everything seemed to be in sync with me and Lisie.

How are we going to get there? We called the Academy to have someone fetch us. Our parents called last night and our carpool will be here before sun down.

Before departing, I decided to visit the Sunset Lake. I don't know but every time I go here, all I can feel is warmth; like this is where I belong. This is the best place to watch the Sunset that's why it is called that. I took care of this lake for years, and tomorrow, there will be no one to take care of the Sunset Lake.

Lana said she found me here, I don't know how but she said it was the most wonderful sunset she ever had before she found the car accident my parents went through. She told me she always wanted to have a daughter.

Suddenly, my brother came out of nowhere and surprised me, making me fall into the lake. There was a sudden blur, a struggling for air, and then I felt his hand, he took me out from the lake. "Ohh don't know how to swim, kid?" He said and laughed. I can't believe I'm going to the Academy soaking wet. "Why don't you dry yourself?" Ris suggested. "Alright, I'll try." I closed my eyes and thought of drying myself real hard. Suddenly, the cold and wet feeling disappeared, changed by warmth from my clothes. "See? There you go." Ris said and smiled. "Ris, can I ask you a favour?" I asked. "What?"

"Can you take care of this whole place while I'm gone?" I asked.

"Sure." He answered and gently kissed my forehead. We stare at each other's eyes. Suddenly, he lowers his head and plants a kiss on my lips. I never kissed someone before so it took me awhile to realize what is happening. I pushed him away. "What are you doing?" I asked. "I-I'm sorry. It's just I can't believe you're leaving me." He said.

"You're my brother." I said.

"I'm not your brother," he said, "I admire you and later, you'll be leaving us." I realized that for years, I admired my brother; his kind heart, bravery, intelligence and almost everything about him but I never thought we would reach this place, I always knew he sees me as a little kid. I turned away and left. I tried not to look back but I froze. There was a few seconds until I realized I was looking back.

He immediately walked towards me and grabbed me by my arms and kissed me; this time I didn't stop him. I found myself frozen in the warmth of his lips. As soon as he lets go of me, I could see the disappointment in his face. No one spoke. It was a just a quiet afternoon and this is how I am going to remember my last sunset in my favorite place.

I went back to our house and saw a black Mazda car parked outside our house. I guess that is our ride. Lisie is already putting our stuff on the trunk. We said our goodbyes to our family. Lisie kissed her Aunt Nene and her little brother, Joseph. I hugged Lana and Tom who are standing beside the car. Ris was nowhere to be seen. I wished he'd come say good bye but after seconds, minutes passing, there was still no sign of him. I left without saying goodbye properly.

We met our driver, Sir Fred. We are also escorted by a bodyguard named Dennis. It was actually the longest ride of my life; six hours and we still haven't arrived yet.

Suddenly, Dennis's phone rang. "Hello sir." - "Where?" - "Okay, we will be there, but we have company, sir. Is it okay?" - "Okay, sir." And then he put down and whispered something to Fred's ear. I looked at Lisie and she is also wondering what was that.

After a few minutes, we stopped by an old house. A man - who seemed have the same age as us - approached the car and opened the door right next to me. We looked at each other. He has green eyes and they are so beautiful that I drowned by actually staring at them. Just kidding! But it was really beautiful.

Dennis and Fred both greeted him. I tried to greet him with a smile but he looked away instantly and then I scooted towards Lisie so he could sit. Lisie suddenly grabbed my hand so I looked at her and she mouthed "dark magician" and she seemed really nervous about it. Lisie can feel whenever someone's dark or light, I don't know how that works because I'm undetermined yet but my family thinks I'll be a light magician because of the first magic I used which is to heal someone.

I heard stories about them, there are obvious dark magicians while there are silent dark magicians; obvious dark magicians are uncontrollable blood lust freaks - that is how Ris calls them. He seemed like the silent one. We were all quiet during the whole trip.