Authors: Aprille Legacy
I hurtled down the stairs, still tying my braid. My
satchel swung wildly and I almost lost my footing, but I
carried on regardless.
Before class started, I had a very big bone to pick with
the Academy.
“Jett,” I snapped as I spotted him coming out of a door.
He started and looked up as I approached.
“Good morning,” he began pleasantly, but I cut him off.
“Why don’t the servants get paid?” I held up my hands
as he tried to reply. “No, not servants.
Slaves
,” I spat the
word at him like it was acid.
“Sky, listen-“
“No! It’s barbaric! Larni thinks she’s worthless because
she isn’t a mage like her parents. Why does the Academy
take advantage of that?”
“Listen, I don’t have anything to do with how to
Academy is run-“
“Don’t give me that crap,” I said, stepping away from
him. “How long have you been here?”
He ground his teeth.
“A year,” he said finally.
“Why haven’t you done anything about it?”
He glanced about before speaking again.
“Look. There are things about this Academy that you’ll
never understand. Leave it alone, ok?”
“No, not ok,” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “It’s
disgusting. I don’t care what realm you’re from, it’s slave
labour.”
The Academy bell rang.
“Go to class,” Jett said, already heading away from me.
“This isn’t the end of this discussion!” I yelled after him,
but he didn’t turn around.
I followed the rest of my classmates outside, still
seething. I spotted Dena amongst them and bounded over
to her, determined to tell her the truth about our
companions.
“Sky!” she grinned as she saw me. “Meet my soul mate,
will you?”
The red headed girl next to her smiled as well, though
slightly more reserved than Dena’s hearty grin.
“Sky, Theresa. Theresa, Sky.”
“Hi,” I said, nodding to her briefly. “Dena, listen can I
talk to you?”
“You can talk,” Theresa said. “Anything you tell Dena,
she’ll just tell me.”
Not as shy as I thought then.
Before I could speak, Jett swept past us all.
“This way, please!” he called, determinedly avoiding
eye contact with me.
He led us to a field on the outskirts of the Academy
grounds. In the distance I could see buildings and smoke,
and I knew I had just gotten my first glimpse of the village
where Larni was from.
“For those mages from the human realm, you’ll find
that our mode of transportation is quite different to what
you’re used to,” I turned back to the class and gasped. Jett
continued. “Here, you ride everywhere.”
He was holding the reins of the most beautiful horse I’d
ever seen. Behind him, several more of the glossy
creatures were grazing peacefully, oblivious to the class
gaping at them.
“You’ll each be given a horse, courtesy of the Academy,
and the cost will be added to your tuition. Your horse is
yours to care for. Come and meet them.”
We all approached the herd, the horses pricking their
ears up with interest. Some went straight for students,
whilst the others hung back. I stood at the back of the
group, watching a beautiful bay mare standing at the edge
of the herd. Warily, I approached her. I held my hand out
as I got closer, and she took the last few steps to close the
gap between us. I smiled as her velvet nose rubbed my
palm.
“Sorry,” I told her. “If I’d known I was coming, I
would’ve brought something.”
She blew at me, and I did the same to her. I’d gone to a
few riding lessons when I was little, and I missed the
companionship.
I stroked her glossy neck as she inspected me, her large
brown eyes looking into mine.
“Your horses are free to name,” Jett was saying. I looked
around, noticing everyone had found their horses. I
noticed Phoenix talking quietly to a black gelding and
frowned; he had already spoken more words to his horse
than he had to me. “Though they might have something to
say about it.”
Puzzled, I glanced at the mare who was nipping my
shirt.
“Alrighty then,” I stroked her nose. “What’s your
name?”
A breeze ruffled the horses’ mane and the grass around
us. Riding on the wind, like a whisper, was a voice. I
closed my eyes, still stroking the mare.
Echo
As clear as day, I heard the single word.
“Echo,” I said, and the mare butted me with her nose.
“My name is Sky.”
Echo huffed at me softly. She was pleased; I had heard
correctly.
Jett taught us how to saddle our horses and showed us
the stalls in the large stable that had been allocated for our
horses. By the time it was time to go to the next class, I
didn’t want to leave her.
“I’ll be back tonight,” I promised.
Our next class was just as interesting; Magical Combat,
taught by the most terrifying mage I’d encountered yet.
“My name is Professor Yu,” he told us in clipped tones,
standing in front of us with his hands clasped behind his
back. We were standing on a large mat that bounced
slightly with every step. “In this class, you will be taught
everything about your magic and physical, hand to hand
combat.”
I bounced eagerly, standing alongside Theresa and
Dena; Phoenix was yet to acknowledge me today.
“First lesson; how to fall.”
Later that night, I limped back to my room. True to his
word, Yu had made sure we knew how to fall.
That night, I didn’t eat in my room. For the first time
since I’d arrived, Larni took me to another hall, which was
filled with tables and benches, a roaring fire in the large
hearth at the far end.
“This is the mess hall,” she told me, not meeting my
eyes. “This is where you’ll take your breakfast, lunch and
dinner.”
“Will I still see you?” I asked her worriedly.
She nodded.
“I still wait on you.” She told me, and then left.
My heart twisted painfully as I saw her go. She was too
embarrassed to face me now.
I grabbed a tray and followed Theresa to the serving
area.
“Can I sit with you?” I asked her.
“Of course,” she replied, confused that I’d even asked.
“Dena wouldn’t have it any other way.”
I followed her back to the table, where Dena was sitting
with four other people.
“Sky, this is Yasmin and her soul mate Petre, Rain and
her soul mate...” Dena squinted. “Sorry, I’ve forgotten
your name.”
“Ispin,” the young man replied, smiling broadly. “Don’t
worry, I still forget it sometimes.”
We laughed, and I sat beside Yasmin, a young woman
with honey blonde hair and laugh lines around her eyes.
“Crazy day,” Rain began, twisting her glossy dark hair.
“We have horses now.”
“I’ve always had a horse,” Petre said, already tucking
into the mashed potatoes on his plate. “Cobalt, his name
was.”
“Yeah?” I challenged, immediately disliking his rather
snooty attitude. “Well I had a car.”
“A cart?”
“No, a car. With an engine.”
Petre blinked at me, completely lost. Yasmin laughed.
“Petre, a car was what we used to get around in the
human realm. It had four wheels and could go very fast.”
She said.
“Well, Cobalt was the fastest horse in my village,” he
told us all proudly, gesturing with a bit of potato stuck on
his fork. “I won a lot of money with him.”
I was grinning along with the others, until I
remembered the events of the morning.
“Listen,” I said, leaning forwards. “Which of you are
from this realm?”
Petre put his hand up, quite unnecessarily, as did Ispin
and Rain.
“Did you know that the servants at the Academy don’t
get paid?” I asked, watching them closely for their
reactions. Dena gasped, but Petre just shrugged.
“Of course they don’t. I brought Jeffield with me from
my estate.”
My stomach seemed to shrivel up as I looked at him.
“You knew?” I asked incredulously. “Why isn’t this
illegal?”
“They’re usually from a mage family,” Rain explained.
“Most magical folk pass the gift onto their children, but
when they don’t, they can offer the children to rich
families or magical institutions.”
“That’s disgusting,” Theresa snapped, her pale yellowgreen eyes flashing.
“It’s our way of life,” Ispin told us. “The children don’t
mind; they are well cared for as servants.”
“Don’t call them that,” I told them. “Call them slaves,
because that’s what they really are. And some of them do
mind.”
Silence fell at our table. I picked at my food but then
pushed it away.
“So, Sky,” Yasmin tried to pick up the thread of
conversation. “Who’s your soul mate?”
“He’s over there,” I said, spying Phoenix sitting at a
table by himself. “He hasn’t spoken to me since the
ceremony, and even then, it was only one word.”
“Figures.”
I turned back around and fixed Petre in my sights.
“Excuse me?”
Petre looked up from his dinner.
“I said, figures. He’s from the Shayde Mountains.”
“And that’s bad?” I asked, frowning.
Petre put down his fork.
“Only a few folk come from the North, and when they
do, it’s not often that they make anything significant of
themselves. He’s had a hard life, trying to scrape a living
off of rocks and ice. That’s all there is in the Mountains.”
I twisted around to look at Phoenix again.
“Where are these mountains?” I asked.
Petre slid his plate towards me.
“This here,” he pushed a potato forwards. “Is the
Academy. Right next to the Academy, where many of
the... servants... come from, is the village Keyes,” he
pushed a snow pea forwards as I glared at him. “South of
here is the city Castor, capital of Lotheria.”
I squinted at the lump of carrot portraying the city.
“What’s Lotheria?”
“Lotheria is the continent we stand on. They should
really teach you all of this first thing. Anyway, this,” he
pushed a piece of tuna that he’d abandoned furthest up his
plate, away from the potato, snow pea and carrot. “Is the
Shayde Mountain Range, up in Orthandrell. It snows all
year around, and they live in almost constant darkness. It
was probably the biggest shock of his life when the sun
rose on his first morning here.”
“They don’t let a lot of their mages come here to be
schooled,” Rain said quietly. “Even Netalia and Iain aren’t
sure how many unschooled mages live in the North.”
“So what state is this?” Theresa asked.
“This is the state of Stanthor. I’m from Abdoor,” Petre
explained. “From the city Riverdoor.”
“I’m from Gowar,” piped up Ispin.
“And I’m from the islands east of here,” Rain said. “The
Tsalski Islands. My parents came here when I was little
and never left.”
“So much to take in,” Yasmin said quietly, resting her
cheek on her hand, observing the vegetable map. “So what
do you do here?”
The three looked at her, puzzled.
“What do you mean?” Petre asked her.
“What do you do? For fun, I mean.”
“Well, I used to go to Moon Bay and the Paw Islands all
the time,” Ispin said, his boyish face lit up with
excitement. “With my mother, father and younger sister.
She’ll be joining the Academy when I leave.”
“Moon Bay and the Paw Islands?” I asked. “Where are
they?”
Petre pointed to a spot to the east of Castor.
“Why are they called the Paw Islands?” Theresa asked.
“Because they’re four islands shaped like a paw,” Ispin
explained. “And Moon Bay is in the shape of a crescent
moon.”
“White sands stretching for miles,” Rain said with her
eyes closed, a thousand years away. “Water so clear you
can see the bottom of the ocean. And the Paw Islands have
the most magnificent wildlife-“
She was cut off by a bell.
“I take it that means dinner is over,” Dena said,
standing up. “Thank you for talking to us. This is all a bit
new.”
I nodded in agreement.
“Our pleasure,” Petre said pompously. “See you
tomorrow in class.”
“I’m going to head to the stables,” I told Dena and
Theresa. “Do you want to come with me?”
Turned out they wanted to head to the library, which I
was yet to investigate and so I headed to the stables alone.
They were alight when I got there, soft light glimmering
with no visible source.
Echo was waiting for me as though she remembered my
promise. Her ears flicked forward when she saw me, and
when I produced the two carrots I’d stolen from the mess
hall, she reached over to lift them neatly out of my
outstretched palm. As she crunched on them, I let myself
into her stall, pulling my hood off of my head and finger
combing my hair. I was glad Larni had found me a cloak;
the night was brisk with a taste of frost.
Finished with the carrots, Echo began inspecting me to
see if I had any more secreted on my person. I giggled as
she whuffed my hair, nibbling bits of it.
The sound of the stable door opening and closing made
me remove Echo’s teeth from my hair. I peered around
her, curious as to whom this visitor was.
It was Phoenix.
For some inexplicable reason, I hid. Because we were
soul mates, his horse’s stall was right next door to Echo’s. I
heard him pass the stall, inches above my head. Echo
snorted at him as he passed.
“Validus,” he murmured, and I frowned for a second
until I realised that was what he’d called his horse. “It has
been a strange day.”
His horse whickered in reply. I heard the stall door
open and close, and glanced up fearfully. Between each
stall were wrought iron bars; I could see Phoenix standing
next to his horse. If he looked down and saw me...
I could just stand and announce my presence, I
thought. But then it was weird, because I’d hidden. I
decided it would be best to remain in the straw. Echo
lowered her head to sniff me curiously.
Phoenix remained there for the better part of an hour,
murmuring to Validus, sometimes in English and
sometimes in a language I didn’t understand; for the first
time I noticed he had an accent unlike Ispin or Rain. I
curled up in the straw, pulling my cloak over me. Beside
me, Echo was beginning to go to sleep, bored with me. I
felt my eyelids drooping, and after a while I noticed that I
was alone in the stable with only slumbering horses for
company.
~
“No, the energy comes from the heart,” Yu snapped at
us. “Your whole diaphragm. Use it!”
I focussed once again on the target that I had been
assigned. Yu was teaching us how to project our magic.
This involved standing in a stance that was making my
legs wobble and ache. I breathed deeply, feeling the magic
in the air and strengthening my core.
“From the heart!” Yu said, and gave the signal.
I threw my right hand out towards the target, and in
the final second before the magic left my body, infused it
with all of the frustration I was feeling towards Phoenix
and the whole situation of this world.
A tongue of emerald flames erupted from my fingertips,
roaring towards the target. It reached further than anyone
else’s, and before I could blink, had reduced the wooden
target to ashes.
“Excellent,” Yu said, bouncing on the balls of his feet
with his hands behind his back. “Just excellent. What’s
your name again?”
“Sky,” I replied, feeling the sheen of sweat on my brow.
Wielding magic was just like exercise; it was exhausting.
“Well, everyone else has homework but not you. You
just continue your breathing exercises. Everyone else will
report to this hall after your dinner tonight for extra
classes.”
Everyone groaned just as the bell rang to signal the end
of class. Yu left quickly as everyone began to migrate
towards their bags, and some of the other servants of the
castle had come in to begin cleaning up. I had almost
reached Dena and Theresa when someone spoke to me.
“So... that was pretty impressive.”
I turned around to face Eleanora.
“Thank you.” I said stiffly.
She tossed her hair, tilting her head on one side.
“You know, you could almost be from this realm,” she
said pensively. “You’re much better than any of the other
humans.”
“We’re not humans,” I said before I could stop myself.
“We’re mages just like you.”
“But you’re from the human realm.”
“So?” I challenged. “Just because we’re from another
realm doesn’t make us any less powerful than you.”
The whole class was watching now. Any pretence of
friendship that Eleanora had been projecting was gone.
“Oh really? I bet you don’t even know what continent
you stand on.”
I inwardly thanked Petre for last night’s geography.
“We’re on the continent Lotheria, in the state of
Stanthor. The capital city is Castor, just south of us. To the
west is Gowar, to the east is Abdoor and to the north is
Orthandrell. From your accent, I’m guessing you’re
from...” I recalled Ispin’s clipped words and swallowed
vowels. “Gowar.”
Silence had filled the hall. I saw Phoenix out of the
corner of my eye watching along with everyone else.
“So you found some books, big deal,” anger flashed in
her violet eyes. “You’re still from the human realm and
you’ll never ever be a true mage.”
“Well if that means overlooking slavery, then I’m glad!
I don’t want to be a true mage if that’s the case!”
The servants stiffened, but they didn’t look up. The
mages from the human realm were looking confused,
whilst the local mages from Lotheria were puzzled that I’d
even brought it up. I decided addressing the human mages
would be best.
“The servants who come to your room and wait on you,
they don’t get paid,” I was looking around at the students,
my hands outstretched and my heart beating frantically; I
hated public speaking. “They get one day off every two
weeks and no pay!”
I heard a few outraged murmurs, and the servants left
as quickly as they’d come. Phoenix wasn’t reacting at all;
he just kept watching me.
“It is our way of life,” Eleanora snapped, echoing Ispin
from the night before.
“It’s disgusting!” I replied angrily. “What makes you
think that you’re better than everyone else? The fact that
you can create fire and magical stuff? Please.”
I turned around to leave, my palms slick with sweat. I
was shaking with anger at Eleanora and the other
Lotherian mages.
“Sky!”
Dena’s shout was the only warning I had before
something hit me hard in the back. I went sprawling on
my face.
“You think you can just waltz in here and tell us how to
live?” Eleanora was shouting. I picked myself up slowly
from the ground. “This has been our way of life for
thousands of years and one little brat from the human
realm isn’t going to put a stop to it!”
“You can bet your life that I will,” I said, and then
lashed out.
My magic hit her before she had a chance to block it.
She fell back, onto the practice mat. Our class gave us a
wide berth, and I could hear Dena trying to break it up.
“Come on, guys, this isn’t good.”
We both ignored her. Eleanora staggered to her feet, a
snarl marring her perfect features.
From the core.
I hit her with everything I had and she went down
again.
“And now you think you’re oh so powerful because
you’ve learnt that one move,” she snarled as she climbed
to her feet again. I bounced on the balls of my feet, ready
for whatever she had to throw at me. “I’ve been training
ever since I was five years old to come to the Academy!”
“Good on you,” I replied, watching her carefully. “I
haven’t trained at all.”
Something lashed through the air. I saw something that
looked like a whip made of violet fire just before it lashed
me across the face.
Pain, white hot pain burnt across my skin from where
the whip had touched me. I fell to the ground, blinded.
Eleanora was still yelling, but I couldn’t hear her properly
through the ringing in my ears.
Hands gripped my shoulders, pulling me back upright. I
struggled, thinking it was Eleanora, but then they spoke
into my ear.
“I’ve got you.”
Phoenix’s low voice made me freeze. That was three
more words he’d spoken to me now.
“Can you open your eyes?” There was no mistaking the
concern in his voice.
I cracked open one eye experimentally, but the other
refused to open, already swelling. I could see that Eleanora
had been restrained by three other mages, and Theresa
and Yasmin were standing between us.
“Ow,” I winced as pain shot across my head.
“Sky!” Dena was at my side, supporting me. I felt
Phoenix take a step back.
“What is this?” I groaned as Iain strode across the
practice mat. “Who is responsible?”
I raised my hand cautiously. Eleanora did nothing for a
moment but then did the same.
“Detention this evening. Both of you!” he snapped
furiously. “We do not tolerate any kind of misbehaviour in
these walls.”
He left as quickly as he’d arrived. I felt something run
down my face, and when I lifted my fingers to touch my
skin, they came away red with my blood.
“You need to go to the infirmary,” Dena was saying.
“You need to be treated.”
“No, I’m fine. I’ll just head upstairs and wash off.”
I shrugged her and Rain off, and then grabbed my
satchel and left the hallway. I passed Phoenix on the way
out, but he made no move to talk to me.
Up in my room, I’d just started dabbing at my face
gingerly with a cloth when Larni entered. She gasped and
promptly dropped the stack of clean linen she’d been
carrying.
“Miss, are you alright? Why are you bleeding?”
“A disagreement with a local mage,” I gasped with pain
as the cloth brushed the open wound. Strong, cool fingers
took the cloth from me and Larni took over cleaning the
wound.
“Sit,” she commanded, and I sat at the table. She
dragged the other chair around close to me and began
cleaning. “What was this about?”
I fixed her with my one good eye.
“Your wages.”
The cloth stilled immediately.
“Please don’t make a fuss about me, miss.”
“Don’t call me miss,” I said, screwing up my face against
the pain. “Call me Sky.”
“Unscrunch your face,” she told me, and I did so. “Ok
then... Sky. Please don’t make a fuss over the other
servants and me. We’re perfectly happy as we are.”
“Are you really?” I asked her.
She dabbed the cloth in the water jug sitting on my
table.
“We are non-magi. We don’t get a say.”
My stomach clenched as nausea rolled through, but
whether it was from the pain or not, I couldn’t tell.
“Please let me help you, Larni.”
She didn’t reply and instead replaced the cloth on the
table. She placed one finger on my jaw, near where the
whip weal ended, and another finger just above my left
eye, where the weal began. She closed her eyes, and a
second later, the pain vanished altogether.
“What did you just do?”
She looked at me in disbelief.
“I... I healed you,” she whispered, like she didn’t quite
believe it herself.
I touched my face, but any mark of the injury was gone.
“Larni, you’re a mage!”
“No, I’m not,” she stood up quickly and backed against
the door. “My parents tested me when I was four! The
tester said I didn’t have a trace!”
“He got it wrong then,” I approached my mirror and
examined my face. My skin was as unmarked as it was
before.
Larni fled before I could stop her.