Children of Chaos - Book 1

"Why did you have to leave?"

"Because."

I raised my hand to shield my eyes as I stepped out of the dark tent. It was one of those days, the days where the whole world just seemed right. The sun seemed brighter, the sky a lighter shade of blue. It was a happy day.

I had just completed an hour of lessons with Gamma and, despite the fact that she had repeatedly thrown apples at my head, I felt wonderful. The sixth or seventh apple had been my first breakthrough. I’d been grumpy and annoyed, with a slight headache coming on from where two apples had hit me when the next one came flying at me. I don’t know what I did differently that time, but the apple vanished. Well, no. Vanished was the wrong word. It was swallowed by shadows. I still had no clue where it had gone, and I hoped it hadn’t just fallen on someone else’s head instead, but I was thrilled. My first success! And now I was happy, despite the fact that Gamma made me repeat the event a dozen times and I failed at least half of them. Which meant that I had passed half of them. Yes, today was a good day.

I made my way to the village square where I knew Khai was training some of the younger kids. We’d been together, if that was the right term, for a good four months now, well past the awkward beginning stages. I was surprised at how fast this relationship, something that had started out as the small hope for comfort, had bloomed into so much more. I couldn’t quite explain it, but here, after a year with the Shemsuddin was the first place that felt like home. And Khai was a big part of that. I passed the tents, brown and plain on the outside, but colorful and bright on the inside, filled with carpets and cushions and lively people.

“Kyra!”, a voice called from behind me and I turned around. It was Haqi, his smile white against his tan face.

“Haqi! Fancy meeting you here.”

He smiled and did a pompous courtesy, taking off an imaginary hat.

“My lady Kyra”

I swatted his arm playfully and he straightened up with a grin.

“What’s up?”

“Well, my lady, I was wondering where you were heading and if you needed someone to escort you. There are all sorts of unsavory fellows here that may try to take advantage of you.”

He offered me his arm and I placed my hand in his elbow, like a proper lady.

“And how, Mr. Haqi, am I to know that you are not the unsavory kind you claim to protect me from? A damsel like me must always be careful not to fall for too much charm.”

“Ah, that is true my lady, but you are the lady of my friend, and as such it is my duty to put my unsavory character on hold for other damsels.”

I laughed and slipped my hand out of his arm.

“I assume you’re bored?”

“Out of my mind!”, he moaned and gave me a big grin. “Where are you heading?”

“I was about to go meet Khai after his classes. He promised me a surprise.”

Haqi gave me a long look, his eyes surprisingly serious for once.

“A surprise? Well, then we mustn’t keep him waiting! Onward my lady! To find your prince”, and with those words he lifted me up, threw me over his shoulder and galloped off. It was a bumpy, but luckily short ride to the square, which I spent hitting Haqi’s back with my fists and demanding he put me down. He suddenly came to a stop gently putting me to the ground.

“You’re an awful knight”, I mumbled crossly, pretending to be upset. Which I was, to a degree, the ride had not been comfortable. Then, when he didn’t reply I looked at him. He was looking at something on the other side of the square and I followed his gaze. It was Khai, sitting on a bench next to a young boy, maybe 9 or 10. I had seen him before, and I’d always wondered what his story was. He seemed…sad, most days.

“Who’s that”, I asked Haqi, who was still staring at the boy, frowning.

“This is Sefu’s younger brother, Mshindi.”

I looked back at the boy. Now that I knew, I recognized Sefus features in the younger boy, but where Sefu was large on every scale, this boy just looked scrawny.

“Why’s he so down?”

Haqi sighed and motioned for me to follow him to a bench, a little further away.

“It’s rude for us to openly stare”, he said with a wink. “ Sefu’s family is full of warriors. You’ve seen him, he could lift an elephant. Oh, you know what I mean. But Mshindi, he’s no warrior. He can barely lift a sword. He’s good with the bow and arrow of course.”

The way that he said that as if it were something bad made me frown. I knew that being a gifted archer was something to be proud off among the Shemsuddin, so why did Haqi sound as if it were a bad thing.

“He’s blessed by Sunna, you know.”

That made me sit up. I’d lived with the Shemsuddin for a year now, but the only other gifted person I’d met was Gamma. She’d told me it was rare, but after having been raised in the reservoir it had been strange for me to get used to people lighting fires with rocks or matches, instead of having a child of Esh be in charge. I’d gotten used to it to some degree over the course of the last year, but that didn’t mean that I didn’t miss it.

“What’s his gift?” I asked, sounding more eager than I’d intended too. He gave me a strange look and the nodded.

“I sometimes forget that you’re blessed too. He’s blessed with the wind.”

And that explained why he was good with a bow and arrow and why Haqi had made it sound like a bad thing. They thought he was cheating. There had been a similar stereotype at the reservoir. No matter how good an archer was, if he or she was a child of Shemayim then it didn’t count. I got up and walked over to where Mshindi and Khai were still talking.

“Hey! Mshindi, right?”

The boy looked up shyly, his face guarded. I touched my forehead with the three middle fingers of my left hand, a customary greeting among the Shemsuddin.

“I’m Kyra.”

He raised his hand and copied the gesture, and I saw it, the mark of Shemayim on his left wrist. I turned mine so he too could see it. His eyes lit up and he looked at me.

“You’ve been blessed too.”

It was almost a question. I smiled and nodded.

“May I sit down?”

The boy nodded and Khai gave me a smile, scooting so there was room for the three of us.

“How long have you known?”

He played looked down at his wrist and rubbed it absentmindedly.

“Since I was a child, maybe three or four. I’m not sure. My parents don’t like talking about it.”

“Hmm. They’re just scared. People fear what they don’t understand”, I gave him a small smile. “But you should be happy Mshindi. You’ve been blessed by Sunna, the mother of all. She saw something in you, something special. Never be ashamed of that.”

He looked up at me, eyes wide, a shy smile on his face.

“You really think so?”

“I do.”

“Thank you, Kyra!”

Khai and I watched in silence as the boy ran off, his steps light.

“What are you thinking?”

I looked over at Khai and sighed.

“You know me too well.”

He smiled but said nothing, patiently waiting for me to speak.

“I know I don’t really talk about the Reservoir that much… But he just reminded me of someone I know. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned her before… Megumi?”

“The tall one?”

“No, that’s Lynn.” I laughed. “ Megumi is actually shorter than me.”

He raised his eyebrows at that and I laughed again.

“It’s true, I swear! Well… she’s also two years younger, so who knows? She might have grown. No, she was blessed by Shemayim”, noting Khai’s confused expression I quickly corrected “the wind as well. Meaning that she’s wicked with a bow and arrow, seriously badass, but other than that she’s a bit… different than the others. In the Reservoir, those who are gifted with the air usually have powers like calling the wind or altering the weather or flying. That one’s super rare, though. I’ve never seen anyone do it. Anyway! Megi… well, she can do the strangest thing with air. She can make it completely solid, which, in my opinion, is pretty awesome, but not to the Elders. Nasty old farts.”

I looked down at my feet, my lips pressed tight. I still felt anger bubble up inside of me whenever I thought of the Elders.

“How did you meet?”

“Who?”

“You and Megumi?”

I leaned back and looked up at the sky, biting my lip as I thought.

“Well… officially? I suppose that when I was down by the river with Aidan. Unofficially we’d of course known of each other for a while, it’s impossible not to run into each other at the Reservoir. It’s small. Not as small as here, though”, I grinned at him. “But yeah… Down by the river. Aidan and I met her together actually. She was in our usual spot, crying about something. I can’t really remember what exactly it was. She’s a sensitive soul, thus, there was a lot of crying going on.

I think it was Aidan who approached her first. If it had been up to me we would have just turned around and left. Tears make me uncomfortable”, I said apologetically.

“Yeah, I know “ he winked at me, referring to the time I’d bumped into a little girl, making her cry and then awkwardly patting her on the shoulder desperate to flee. I stuck out my tongue at him and continued.

“Anyway, you smartass, we sat down with her and started talking. She told us all about how she felt like she didn’t fit in and I could relate, you know? I mean sure, I had Lynn and Ethan to look after me, but they were older and I often felt young and dumb next to them. And then I had Aidan who I always had to be just a bit careful around. Otherwise, I was an outsider. I had no ability to speak off, no family, no clan. I got where she was coming from. So we bonded over that. I liked her. She was cute, she was naïve, and for once I was the older, wiser one. She came to me for advice. I loved it. But most of all…she reminded me of Caleb.

I liked taking her under my wing, and she followed me around like a puppy. Or so I thought. You see, back then, Aidan and I were never far from each other. And then it was the three of us, sometimes five when Lynn and Ethan joined, but mostly it was us three. I don’t know why I didn’t see it for so long. Love makes blind, or stupid or something because by the time I realized that Megumi had fallen head over heels in love with Aidan… well, you know the rest.”

“So Megumi was the girl? The one Aidan was in love with when he rejected you?”

“I think so… I had to flee shortly after that, but yeah, I think so.”

We were quiet for a long time after that, just sitting there, enjoying the sun, both of us thinking our own thoughts. Little Megumi. Even when I knew she was in love with Aidan, even when I thought he loved her too, I could never bring myself to blame her for it.

“I miss her.”

“Who? Lynn?”

“Her too. I miss them all you know. Lynn, Ethan, Morgain. I miss Morgain a lot! I wish she could see me now, know I’m ok. But I was talking about Megumi. I didn’t realize it until now. I really cared about her, still do I guess.”

He gently put his arm around my waist and pulled me close to his side. I leaned my head against his broad shoulder and crinkled my nose.

“You smell.”

“Shut up. You’re ruining a perfectly sweet moment.”

“Fine. I’ll shut up. But my point remains.”

He chuckled at that and gently started stroking my hair. I closed my eyes, enjoying the feeling of his fingers in my hair and allowed myself to cry, just a little bit, for the people I’d lost.