Chapter 1: Nothing But Trouble
She stood, motionless, in front of the fire. She had black hair, a white robe, and ghostly ectoplasmic wings, and the fire was making a pillar of lazy purple smoke. Her hands moved in gentle circles as she chanted softly to herself and the smoke churned sluggishly through the night air.
A voice spoke in her mind. Calythé? it said. She opened her blue eyes.
"Ramisse," she grumbled. "You disrupted my focus."
Do you see anything, Sister?
"No. Be patient, Ramisse. Scry-smoke takes a long time to work properly." Suddenly she doubled over, her face red. The lazy purple smoke changed color, becoming a solid pillar of verdant green.
CALYTHÉ?! screamed the voice in alarm. The green pillar flashed abruptly, sent out a great wave of light and exploded under Calythé's bare feet.
Calythé? said the voice tentatively.
"Something is definitely happening," she said bitterly, climbing to her feet and brushing away the logs of the now-extinguished fire.
No duh, mumbled the voice as dawn broke upon the forest.
Meanwhile...
"No," said Emi firmly.
"Aw, come on, Emi. It'll be fun!" wheedled Ametha, brushing back her purple bangs and picking up her amethyst-topped copper staff. She signaled to Topaz and Saffa, who were standing across the room, and waited for them to signal back.
Emi sighed and picked up her staff. Emi was one of the more powerful members of the Magicians' Guild, but she was one of the shyest and meekest as well. Ametha, however, was the other side of the coin. In Terraria Land, amethyst, topaz, and sapphire-strength magicians made up the bottom tiers of magic, while emerald, ruby, and diamond magicians made up the top. Emi was emerald-strength, so she could have turned Ametha into a slime if she wanted to, but she tended to be bossed around by her more often than not. As a result, they were dueling in the main hall right under Headmistress Embrea's nose.
Ametha crouched into the ready position for dueling, and Emi followed suit. They were about to start firing multicolored energy bolts at each other, when the word "AMETHA!" was heard across the hall. In strode the headmistress, Embrea Holt, both beautiful and terrifying with fire-colored hair cascading down behind her back. And next to her, an angry glare in his one remaining eye, was none other than Thunder Zevulon.
Thunder Zevulon. Legendary diamond-strength magician, assistant to the headmistress, master of air and storm magic. Not to mention the person Emi had a terrible crush on.
Thunder was a strange magician. He had begun training at the Magicians' Guild as a boy. One day he had come back with his right eye mauled and scratched. He had worn an eye patch ever since, and his remaining light gray eye stared fiercely out at the world under a fringe of snow-white hair. Not that Thunder was old. When claimed by a gem strength, a magician's hair and eyes changed to match that of the gem.
Thunder seldom spoke. Rumors circulated that he was mute, but in fact he chose not to speak.
Emi found all of these qualities handsome, and usually was struck mute when he came into the room.
Saffa nudged Emi. "Uh, Emi? Are you okay?"
Emi snapped back into the real world. "Huh?"
"You zoned out for a second," said little Saffa with concern, looking up at her.
"Yeah, Saffa…" said Emi absently, ruffling his dark blue hair and glancing at Thunder one last time. "I'm fine."
Ametha's bare feet pattered through the hallways as she ran, her ponytail streaming behind her like a ribbon of purple satin. "Stupid Emi. I should have strangled her a long time ago," she muttered to herself. She rounded a corner and flattened herself against the wall in the nick of time, just as Embrea and Thunder came into the corridor.
Embrea giggled like a little girl and whispered to Thunder, "Ametha's in trouble again. She's right at the end of the corridor."
They stealthily crept on bare feet to the corner. Embrea, a vision in red, stood up tall and straight and rounded the corner, where Ametha almost screamed.
"AAAHH! Uh- oh, erm, hi, Embrea! Um, you look good," said Ametha lamely. Her violet eyes held an expression of pure panic.
"Where are you going, Ametha?" asked Embrea gently.
"My quarters," Ametha lied.
"Very well. Proceed," said Embrea. Ametha spun on her heel and sped off down the corridor. She wasn't looking where she was going and almost collided with a sudden green person. Emi, looking shocked and pale, her green eyes wide. Then she shrugged and continued walking.
Ametha angrily stared after her, then turned and started down the corridor.
Once Emi was in her room, she put her hands behind her huge green pigtails and pulled out the ties, letting down her long, thick green mane. She set her tungsten staff in the corner and reached for her nightgown in the closet. Ametha peered around the wall into the room. Once she saw Emi, she growled a little.
"WHO'S THERE!" Emi turned around in alarm. Suddenly Ametha realized what she had done and bolted. Unfortunately, she left a single hair behind.
Emi picked up her staff and rushed into the hallway, ready for battle. Then she looked down. There at her feet was a long purple hair.