Captain Laren of the Green Riders swung her lantern out in front of her. The light illuminated a girl, about 13 with hazel eyes and light brown hair. It played across her high cheekbones, her strong square chin, and her nose spattered with freckles. The girl's clothes were dirty with dust from the mostly unused corridors that she had taken refuge in.
"We've been looking all over for you! Karigan was about to leave, but she wanted to say goodbye. Why are you hiding down here?" Laren huffed out her breath in annoyance as she took in her adopted daughter's bedraggled appearance.
The girl stared back at Laren, her jaw set.
"Why is she just throwing it all away? If she doesn't want to be a rider, why did the brooch choose her and not me?" Her lip started to quiver. "I don't want her to go."
Laren stared at her daughter blankly for a moment, then she shook herself and wrapped an arm around the girl.
"Mel, not saying goodbye won't stop her from going. Karigan has duties, a life she needs to return to-" she cut off her words. Even to herself, she sounded unconvincing. Laren tried a different tack.
"Mel, I know how much you want to be a Green Rider, but don't you think you should explore other options? Even if a brooch does call you, most people are released after five or so years. Being a rider can't be your entire life. Have you thought about going to Selium and getting an education there?" As she spoke, Laren felt Mel pulling away from her. The girl focused accusing eyes on Laren.
"It has been an entire life for you! You've had the brooch for what, twenty years? Why can't that happen to me? This is all I want, all I've ever wanted. This has been my life. I, I thought…" her voice trailed off as her eyes began to fill. Wiping her nose on her dirty sleeve, she tried again. "I thought you said I was the perfect person to be a rider. Now you're saying I might never be called?" She turned and fled the corridor, heading back towards the office of the clerk Dakrias. The captain stared after Mel, mentally pounding herself.
Mel waved goodbye to Karigan before hurrying back to her room. When she got there, she found a note lying on her bed, along with a pouch. The note was in Karigan's handwriting. It read:
I'm hope I'll see more of you in the future. Here is a little gift to remember me by. It is a shard of the moonstone that helped to defeat Shawdell. I haven't found a use for the remaining shards yet, but they've served me well in the past. If you do go to Selium, I hope you'll take a lesson from my experiences. Try not to get yourself expelled!
Mel smiled to herself and drew out the shard. She held it up to the light, admiring the colors that came out when she did so. It dispelled her unhappy thoughts of leaving the palace, and she began to reflect on last summer. She had been out of the way for so much of it, but she remembered the fear and distress she had felt when she thought the king and Captain Laren were dead. Fortunately, they had defeated the Amilton and the Eletian in their plot to take over the kingdom and unleash wild magic over the whole land.
She reread the note and frowned at the mention of Selium. So the captain had mentioned her plan to Karigan. Mel would just have to figure out a way to stop it and stay at the palace before it was too late.
I hope you enjoyed this! This story is about Mel and her adventures at Selium. Upcoming characters include Karigan's friend Estral and her old arms teacher, but there probably won't be much interaction with the palace-central characters. I thought Mel was a very interesting character that wasn't explored very much in the books, so I decided to write about her. I will be updating this regularly, I promise. Reviews are always appreciated!