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The Mages fell many years ago, them and their magic.
And what a wonderous thing it was!
Grand and glorious, like its wielders.
My home city was built on magic, sustained by it, even after all these years.
"Great Mages, Adina." My mother swears as she trips over another of my creations.
"I am sorry, Mother. I am sorry!" I feel bad every time this happens, but cannot seem to break the habit.
"If you want to be in the Golden Guard one day, you must learn to stop this!" She reprimands, face stern and hard.
"Yes, Mother, I know." I murmur softly.
Joining the Golden Guard is my dream. They're the ones that serve the High Council, the desendants of the Mages.
Joining them is what every hot-headed teen dreams of.
I have been training for years and years.
After all, they only let in the best of the best. That's what's needed to fight the Witches, after all. They used corrupted Magic, twisted beyond recongnition as the wondurous threads of reality it was.
Even though the originals are dead, defeated by the Mages years and years ago, their descendants and their legacy live on.
That's what the Golden Guard fights.
I start to smile as my train of thought leads to the fact that it's training time again.
**
I'm finally here. The Arena. Where the High Council chooses the Neophytes for each year. No one knows the method, only that the High Council always has the best of the best of the best.
"Welcome to The Arena, Wishfuls! Here, you will compete in a tourney. We have five Neophytes each year. You must prove you're the best choice." The Council member who spoke lifts their arms. "You must battle to the death! The last five alive become the newest Neophytes."
What.
All the other Wishfuls look shocked as well, but as servants bring out light armor and a rack of weapons, it all becomes real.
There are 26 Wishfuls, excluding me.
To become a Guard, I must kill twenty two people, sans the ones that other people do.
I swallow back nausea.
This is the High Council's decision. It must be the right one. If you make it, you'll kill Witches every day.
I put on the armor offered, grabbing two daggers.
I imagine them wet and crimson with blood, and I have to swallow more vomit back.
I take a deep centering breath, lowering into a defensive pose.
A different Coucil member bangs a deep drum, and the bloodshed begins.
**
I walk through the living room of the Neophyte House.
It's a normal house in a normal neighborhood, except there's a bunch of kids training to be Guards in it.
It's meant to keep our location safe and secret from the Witches. I have to admit, it's a pretty smart idea.
Sabrina, my roommate, joins me, breathless.
"Hey Adina! Adina! I have something I wanna talk to you about. Let's go to the room."
Sabrina can be a bit much, but she has a good heart.
"Okay." I agree, bemused.
She drags me off, and I can barely keep my feet on the floor with how fast she is.
When we get to our room, she practically launches me onto my bed, shutting the door behind us.
"Adina. What do you think of the Witches?" She asks timidly, the polar opposite of a minute ago.
"What do you mean? They twisted magic for their own vile means, and it was only thanks to the Mages that our world was freed of their horrid hold." I ignore my own doubts about the story, and recite what I was taught since I was a child.
Sabrina looks at me calculatingly. "What do you really think of them? You know in your gut they can't be what they were portrayed, right?"
I reluctantly nod. "The Mages are… Cruel at times. Like the Initiation. In the Arena." I hesitate. "Don't they have security in here?"
"I blocked it."
I just stare at her.
She seems to hesitate before plowing forwards again. "You know their story. The honorable Mages and the wicked Witches faced off, and the Mages killed them, freeing the land of their twisted magic." I nod. "Now, do you want to hear our side of the story?"
**
I can't pay attention during training the next day. My instructors pick up on it, but I get off with a half-assed excuse of my period.
My mind keeps drufting to the story Sabrina told me yesterday.
"The Witches were a peaceful people. They practiced a darker shade of Magic, yes, but nothing different then the Mages did. But that wasn't the thoughts of the Mages.
They decided they wanted to be the only wielders of magic, any shade.
They stormed the Witches' village, burned their houses and slaughtered every one of them."
My shot falters, and ends up hitting the target's leg instead of the chest like I meant.
"Or so they thought. About three of them managed to escape before that happened. They hid their magic and waited, giving birth in the process. Their bloodline continued for years, the Mages helping without knowing. The world thought they were dead, so no one was looking for them."
I slice off the arms of a target, before slicing its neck.
"Their bloodline got intermingled with humans, the same as the Mages, though the Witches' Magic shone through the human magic brighter. Witch descendants are often graces with superior physical abilities, some even have Magic of their own."
I whirl through the last of the targets, soft, malleable and fake body parts dropping around me.
"Have you ever felt different, or out of place? Like you're not like anyone around you?" She grins, fangs poking out from her teeth. "We're Witches, Adina. And they killed our family."
**
The Mages fell many years ago.
With them went their Magic.
And what a wondurous thing it was, I was always told.
But everything has a shadow.
A 'dark side' some call it.
The Mages were grand, glorious beings to almost everyone.
They did not practice this Magic.
Those practitioners were slaughtered a long, long time ago, by the same Mages the world now worships beyond the grave.
The Mages' hands are red with the blood of my fallen ancestors.
And so are their descendants, born without magic themselves, but with power in its wake.
Power bought with my family's blood.
I stand in their chamber, among all the other Neophytes waiting for the Amateur choices.
As they call my name, I walk up and I vow quietly.
I will avenge my ancestors, and give them the justice in death they could not get in life.
I made myself a weapon for the Mages. That weapon will kill them all.