Daughter of Dusk

For several moments, all I can feel is a force around me, constricting my movements and making my breathing shallow. It’s as though rope has been wrapped around my entire body and is trying to cut into my skin. I keep my eyes shut tight, knowing that this is temporary, knowing that this won’t last forever. But it doesn’t make the experience any less frightening.

By the time the pressure around me retreats, I’m too scared to open my eyes, too afraid to see if I was successful in my travels or not. I could have gone to all this effort and only moved an inch. Or maybe I ended up somewhere else entirely. Or maybe I succeeded. But as long as I keep my eyes closed, I can exist in a world where I both succeeded and failed.

But then, I feel something.

A warmth on my face.

I can sense light just beyond my closed eyelids.

A salty smell lingers in the air.

A rushing sound roars next to me, grand and powerful, containing a force I can’t even begin to comprehend.

A soft wind sweeps my hair behind my shoulders.

I let out a shaky exhale and open my eyes, the sensations around me too intriguing to ignore.

As my eyes adjust to the light, the vibrant blue sky is the first thing I see. For some reason, I thought the sky would be a darker blue, during the day, at least. I can only imagine it darkens at night. But the daytime hue is something I didn’t know could even exist. Now that I see it like this, it’s a wonder I didn’t picture it this way in the first place. The light blue colour arcs over me, with what I can only assume are clouds making their way across the sky at a leisurely pace. But these aren’t clouds I’ve seen before. They’re not like the constant, gray overcast clouds of Zala. These are a soft, brilliant white colour, with just a few of them gliding through the air on their own time.

And then there’s the sun. When I imagined a ball of fire in the sky, I assumed it would at least feel hotter. But instead, it gently warms up my skin, though I find I can’t look at it for too long before my eyes hurt.

Right ahead of me, is what I assume to be an ocean. I can at least tell it’s the source of the salt and the crashing sound from earlier. It appears to be a greener blue than the sky, but there’s a richness to it, the blue getting darker and darker the further from the land it gets. It promises all kinds of fascinating creatures and life beneath the waves. The sun sparkles on the surface, making the waves shimmer as they move. It hypnotizes me as I imagine all the countless colours that could reflect on it during sunset, how beautiful they’d all look on the horizon together.

I blush as I remember Soren’s words on the subject. I wonder what he would think of this place.

The breeze that appears to be coming off the waves counteracts the warming effects of the sun, but it makes the area a perfect temperature for me.

Now that I’m here, I realize just how cold Zala is.

Beneath me, the ground shifts under my footsteps, but the light purple colour is smooth near the water. I pick some of the shifting ground up in my hand, watching as the grains fall in streams until I’m only holding a small collection of the substance that I think is called sand. How strange.

I glance behind me and notice that the ground appears to get more solid the further from the ocean it is. I walk away from the water, seeing a collection of trees lining the sand, promising a forest behind them. But they’re unlike any trees I’ve ever seen. The bark is a rich brown colour, the leaves a bright shade of green I couldn’t have ever conjured in my imagination. They don’t appear to be prickly or pointy like the ones back in Zala. These come in all shapes and sizes. I reach out to one close to me, and I notice how soft and smooth it is, the oval shape coming to a point, the spine seemingly creating designs in the small surface. All the trees cause a light woody smell to waft through the area, mixed with the sweet scent of plants all around and the salt coming from the ocean.

I walk through the area, so encapsulated by everything around me that I don’t even notice the woman in front of me until I run straight into her.

“Oh, I’m sorry!” I exclaim hastily, snapping out of my daydream.

I look up in the next moment and take in the girl I ran into. She looks to be about the same age as me, I think. It’s so hard to tell when we all age slower after our late teens. The first thing I notice about her is her bright, curly red hair, falling just past her shoulders in ringlets. I’ve never seen red hair on anyone before, but it’s almost as if this girl was born to have it. Her eyes are vibrant green, but there’s a depth to them, shimmering like what I imagine emeralds to look like. Her energy is constantly buzzing around her, but there’s something about her that puts me at ease.

“No worries! It happens.” Her cheeks are rosy as she smiles.

I give her a small grin, about to move on, when she stops me. “Have I seen you before?”

I freeze, but I try my best to hide it. “No, I don’t believe so.”

She fidgets with her fingers, and I notice a ring on her right hand; a silver band with white, shimmering stones coming up to meet a brilliant dark blue jewel in the center. It transfixes me before I bring myself back to the conversation.

“Hmm, maybe I’m just losing it,” she laughs. “I’m Blaire, by the way.”

“Luna.” I chuckle.

Something about this girl makes me feel like I can trust her. I can’t explain the full reason why. Her energy is so inviting, that it’s impossible not to get wrapped up in it all.

“Well, nice to meet you. Come on, I’m just walking back to the city. I’d be glad of the company.”

Before I have a chance to say no, she starts walking deeper into the heart of the island, and I feel I have no choice but to follow her.

“So, what’s your element?” She asks, before continuing on. “It’d have to be Earth, wouldn’t it? You don’t have any other elemental traits.”

“Elemental traits?”

“You know. Telltale signs of your elemental powers that Terra, Aqua, Aer, and Ignis so graciously gifted us so long ago so that we could win the War of Darkness.”

Oh, that’s right. Terra, Aqua, Aer, and Ignis: The Gods of the Elements. They gifted a group of humans their elemental powers and turned the tides of the war; everyone now living on Kera is a descendant of that initial group.

“You’ve never heard of elemental traits?” She narrows her eyes just a little. “I thought everyone knew about them.”

Maybe I wasn’t ready for this.

“Oh.” I look down.

She frowns. “You okay? You seem a little lost, darling.”

I nod, but on the inside, my mind is running a million paces a second. She already knows I don’t belong here – I can feel it. I can’t just tell her I’m from Zala, can I? But I don’t think I can lie to this girl. And besides that, I’ve lived enough of my life in a lie.

Perhaps she views the Great War of Darkness the same way Zala does: as a legend. Father still harbours a lot of anger toward it, but would this cheerful girl – Blaire – hold a grudge for something that happened so long ago?

I take a breath. I’m done with lies. I may as well start my time in this new place with the truth – as much of it as I know.

“I suppose it makes sense I haven’t heard of elemental traits, because . . .” I take a deep breath. “To be transparent, I – I’m not from here. I wield Shadow.”

She blinks at me with wide eyes. “So you’re from Zala?”

I nod.

She frowns again. “Are you sure?”

Am I sure? What does that even mean?

I shake my head out of my thoughts. “Yes. Why do you ask?”

Her face quickly relaxes, and she gives a light shrug. “I don’t know. You just don’t look like what I imagined a Shadow Wielder to look like. Maybe my imagination got away from me when I was learning about the war growing up, even if we did win it back in the day.” She laughs to herself.

How can this girl be so cheerful about everything?

“What did you think we looked like?”

“I don’t know. The texts always described you guys as being super pale with dark eyes. Stories say that Shadow Wielders engulfed everything in black fire, so I always assumed your powers were like mine, but – well – darker, obviously.”

“That description isn’t too far off, honestly. Some are blonde, too, but I don’t look like most Shadow Wielders.” I pause. “There are lots of other things Shadow Abilities can do aside from the black fire. My sister favours that, but there are ways to manifest weapons out of the darkness too, among other things. And . . . my brother has an aptitude for using darkness to infiltrate someone’s mind.”

“Huh. That’s a bit freaky.”

“It is. He’s practiced on me a handful of times, but he’s never managed to get inside my head, funny enough. But I try to avoid him when he’s working on it.”

“Um, yeah, don’t blame you on that one.” She laughs again before her eyes light up with realization and she changes the subject. “Wait a second, I thought Shadow Wielders couldn’t travel here without an amulet, and that they all got destroyed during the war.”

“Oh!” I pull Soren’s amulet from beneath my top. “One of them survived.” My face becomes warm.

“Wow,” she breathes, looking closer. “Sorry, just, I never thought I’d ever see one of these.”

“Me either, honestly.” I pull the stone back under the fabric of my shirt. “This one is a family heirloom. A . . . a very good friend let me borrow it.”

“So . . . you really are from Zala.”

“Mmhmm.”

“Well, you seem nice, but you better not be here to take over Kera.” There’s still humour to her tone, but there’s caution beneath her words.

“No, no. I don’t mean any harm, truly. I came here because. . .because I don’t want to be in Zala anymore. It’s difficult to explain.” I think about telling her about my search for whatever Father doesn’t want me to find on this world, but I decide not to delve into that. She doesn’t need to know my life story. “My side may have lost the war, but I don’t have a vendetta or anything. I would never dream of trying to conquer the island, or any part of Enas, for that matter. War is the last thing I’d want to experience.”

“Hmm.” She thinks for a moment before nodding. “I believe you for now. But we’ll see what my friend Teagan thinks. She’s an Earth Wielder, so she can read people’s energy. If you have any secret motives, she’ll be able to tell.”

“I can assure you I don’t, but that’s fair enough.” I take a breath. “After reading so much about the war, I wasn’t entirely sure how my powers would be perceived, so I suppose it’s only fair there’s some apprehension.”

She shrugs with a smile. “I’ve just never met someone like you before. But at the end of the day, the war happened so long ago that it’s ancient history. I mean, if you had an army behind you, it’d be a different story,” she laughs. “But, well, I can’t speak for everyone on the island, but I know for me, I don’t really like Zala, but I’m not going to categorize you as an instant villain based on something that happened a thousand years ago.” She looks down. “I get enough of that as it is.”

I want to pry, but a force tells me it’s not a good idea.

“We’ll see what Teagan says when you meet her,” Blaire continues, changing the subject. “But for now, I believe you. And I won’t lie and say I’m not interested in what your Shadow Abilities look like.”

“Compared to my sister, I’m not very good at conjuring the black fire,” I say sheepishly, “but I can do things like this.”

I put my hands out for a moment as a silvery, sparkling mist covers a few meters of the path in front of us. It reminds me of the portal in some ways, with the edges dissipating into fine specks, blending with the air. But the centre of the mist is so opaque I don’t think anyone would be able to see if they were in the middle of it.

Blaire’s eyes light up. “Oh, wow! I’ve never seen anything like this!” She swings her hands through the fog, watching it flow upwards into the air upon her movement with a laugh.

I never knew someone could be so joyful.

“It feels cold.” She shivers, turning to me as I make the sparkles fade. “And I’m constantly cold, so that’s saying something. It looks different than I thought it would, though.”

“How so?”

“I guess I thought it’d be darker, maybe. I’m not sure.” She shrugs as the smile reappears on her face. “Still super cool though.”

I can’t help but grin back before my curiosity pricks up. “So, you were talking about elemental traits earlier, what exactly does that mean?”

“Oh! Well, when the Gods of the Elements gave us our powers, some of their characteristics got passed on to us. Fire Wielders such as myself are the only ones that have an elemental trait connected to hair colour.” She unceremoniously holds up a section of her red-orange curls with a smirk. “For everyone else, it’s present in eye colour. Water Wielders have blue eyes, Air is gray, and Earth is usually hazel or brown. That’s why I thought you wielded Earth at first.”

“Oh, I see. So you can wield fire?”

“Yup!” She creates a stagnant flame in the palm of her hand. It blows in the light breeze, and I’m shocked at how utterly mystifying it looks. It doesn’t appear to burn her skin in any way – I don’t think – but it seems so comfortable between her fingers. The reds and oranges intertwine in such a peaceful way. It’s not as though I’ve never seen fire before; I’ve known my sister long enough to recognize it. Her black fire is always so intimidating, roaring with power, but this is so quiet and calm. I had no idea fire could be so beautiful.

“Do you have fire in Zala?” Blaire laughs, extinguishing the flame in her hand.

“Yes,” I reply sheepishly. “I’ve just never seen it like this before.”

“That’s fair enough,” she reassures, grinning as she looks straight ahead. “Oh! There’s the rest of Kera there!”

Beyond the treeline is a small clearing that precedes the largest civilization I’ve ever seen – up until this point at least – with several tall buildings in the distance. When I was reading about Enas, I saw how different parts of this world can have cities with hundreds of thousands of people. The island doesn’t seem like it can house that many people, thankfully; I can’t even picture what that many people could look like.

“Oh, now that we’re away from the trees, I can show you this,” Blaire says excitedly, running to the middle of the grassy field.

She throws a flare up high into the air, watching it linger for a moment as it reaches its full height before a shower of sparks explodes against the blue sky. It makes a large cracking sound as it bursts, making me jump, but the shimmering sparks are so beautiful it’s hard not to take my eyes off them.

“Wow,” I breathe.

“Cool, hey? I’ve always loved doing that.” She laughs. “It looks a lot better at night.”

“I can imagine.” I grin.

“Come on, we’re almost there, and I can introduce you to Teagan and some of my friends. I think they’re at the training centre right now.”

She walks ahead, and once again, I feel I have no choice but to follow her.

What have I gotten myself into?