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chapter 0
She was running for her life, trying to get away, her mother's last words still echoed in her head.
"run, and find your own happiness!"
But what was happiness?
She remembered her father singing her lullabies, his warm soothing voice felt like an embrace.
She remembered her aunt bringing her pretty dresses and braiding her hair, she had loved her hair so much.
She remembered her mother, her black curly hair tickling her face, laughing violet eyes.
"find your own happiness, Ashara"
That was all over now, what was once an ancient and revered mage family was no more, Ashara had seen her home in flames, her aunt face down on the floor in a pool of blood and her hands in a weird position like she was trying to conjure a spell but failed.
Her father had been the first to die, the only one there with no power, only the will to save his family.
He had tried.
He had failed.
She knew why this was happening, her mother was talking about it with her own sister, a conversation Ashara was never meant to listen to, but well...
Her family was a nuisance for the new Covenant of mages that had started to take traction in the country, her family, her house, was ancient and proud, and way too independent for their liking, It wasn't hard to understand why all of a sudden her home was attacked.
Still a young mage, Ashara was not a complete novice to her art, but she still had a long road ahead of her...well if the road wasn't cut off suddenly, that is.
If she wasn't running gods only knew where, eyes still burning from the tears and the smoke, she might have wondered about the future of her studies.
Her burning home was a red dot in the distance, and all around she had the dark of the night and the forest to protect her, could she finally stop?
<<over there, I saw her running in this direction!>>
the answer was clearly no.
<<Keep your voice down idiot!>>
<<She's alone now, the last one, even if she reaches the city what can she do? so what if the damn girl hears me!>>
There were at least two people after her, then.
With a hand on her mouth, trying to cover her own voice, she started moving slowly, there *had* to be a place to hide, even just for the night--
The house burning was terrifying, but now that she was alone, hunted, in a dark forest in the middle of the night, Ashara thought that this is what true fear must be like.
A branch breaking gave away her position.
"of course, just like in the worst of books" she thought, as she started running again.
How was she even still standing, she did not know and didn't care to know, not with the shouting behind her and the sounds of people running towards her.
She needed a safe place
she needed to get away
needed to---
The memory of her aunt performing a spell, a portal--
she used those to come and go, her aunt didn't like to travel normally.
Ashara had yet to learn that, but she had a good memory and had seen her aunt perform the spell countless times
<<I have to---but to where? to where?>> she murmured, her voice shaky as she moved her hands how she remembered seeing.
<<where?>> she whispered again, suppressing a sob.
The shouting drew closer, Ashara couldn't think of a single place where she could be sure no one would look for her, but the portal opened anyway.
And with no other option, she jumped in.
It was night when Ashara opened the portal, but after getting out on the other side, after a brief adjustment, she realized she could feel the heat of the sun on her skin.
That was weird, aunt Jasna always said portals only make you travel in places, not time...but Ashara was exhausted and maybe there was a possibility that she actually passed out. Which meant of course that no one found her during her time unconscious.
Being the first time Ashara performed the spell, it was a good thing that it still worked even if she didn't know where she was.
She looked down to her hands, to the traces of ash and blood when she tried to wake her aunt, her torn nightgown, burned in some places, and on the floor the bag her mother shoved in her arms before sending her out the house.
The bag alone was confirmation that her mother Charissa was expecting unwanted visitors sooner or later, Ashara thought bitterly. She stayed in the burning house to stall them from coming after her...she was probably dead now.
Ashara was truly alone.
She felt tears coming down her cheeks, from grief, from rage, everything melt together as she picked up the bag and tried to walk again.
There was blood on her feet as well, from running in the woods bare-footed, and only now she could feel it hurt but it didn't matter, she had to find a safe place so she began walking again even if every step felt like being stabbed by daggers.
Coming out of the trees she found herself in, she saw the plain field ahead of her and could not recognize it---where was she?
Her internal questions were not meant to be answered at that moment, because when she took the next step, her body decided that it was too much and Ashara collapsed on the ground.
Fighting to stay awake, she barely registered the voices around her, hell she could barely see the face in front of her, she could only feel dark hair tickling her face. It was too much.
<<mother?>> she whispered, and then it was dark.