I land face first into the hard earth, dirt rubbing even more into my face.

"Again," my teacher commands.

My body aches, my hand has imprints from how hard I've been clenching my wand. It lays a few feet away from me, the silver color of it tainted to a tan color by the dirt. I sigh heavily and push my body up again, and pick up my wand. Two pieces of silver metal spiraled around each other before splitting away in a U shape, in the center, right before the split was a white jewel. A crystal that gleamed a purplish-blue color in the light. I clench my hand around it and the ruhk immediately enters my body, a ball of wind, violently spinning around in a sphere, appears in the middle of the wand in between the split.

I swing my wand towards my right, and several gusts of air fly towards my teacher. They each cut his skin in various spots, and blood quickly follows from the gashes. He does not blink. He didn't even bother to dodge.

"Not deep enough, your strength is not enough by itself."

I frown. We were already inside his barrier, one that limits the amount of ruhk allowed through. The first lesson learned was to not use up the ruhk all at once or too quickly, the next was to control the ruhk.

"Rest now, we shall build up your physical strength from now on," with that, my teacher turns and walks away. Back to the other instructors, faceless people that stand behind the thin curtain that separates them from the sparring area. They always just stood and watched, black figures that I only knew as the rest of the instructors sent to train me.

A soft hand wraps around my own, pale as snow slightly dirty from touching my own caked in dirt. Her clothes are floral and white, beautiful. Chic and shear, like all the other caretakers, made of material that those outside of the Kingdom could only dream of.

"Come, Tahira. Let's get you cleaned up."

Her name is Hessa, and she is beautiful. She had long, straight black hair and pale skin. Her eyes were blue and light as crystals. Hessa was my personal caretaker, not like the others hired by the "powers that be". Hessa was the only face I could recognize anymore, I'd read about mothers and fathers in books about children from a faraway land called Earth.

"Hessa?"

"Hmm?" She was scrubbing soap into my hair while I was cleaning the rest of my body.

"Why do I need to train so much?" Silence. Hessa never liked answering this question, but I never liked her not answering it either. I had to know. There are a bunch of questions Hessa wouldn't answer. Like my parents, or the greater powers, or what was outside of the barrier, or even Lunaria.

"So you can control ruhk."

"But why?"

"So you can balance the light and dark ruhk. It is your fate."

I looked down at my stomach, the scar there was still light colored. It was from the dark ruhk that entered my body from the last training session. 'A failed attempt to control dark ruhk', was what the instructors whispered afterwards.

"But Lunaria is perfectly balanced, that's what the other caretakers say."

"That's true, but your purpose is meant to balance Earth."

Outside of my window, children are screaming and chasing each other. But today I cannot play outside and join them, I never get to join them. Hessa says that today is an important day for training. Today was the beginning of physical strength building, which was critical to use all of my energy properly. At least that was what she told me this morning, but the sun was high near the center of the sky. I kept hearing hurried shuffling in the halls and shushed whispering every now and then. I didn't bother to listen in this time.

The door creaks open and Hessa steps into my room. He face is layered with worry, her eyebrows are scrunched and her mouth is in a deep frown.

"Tahira, we must go. There is someone you need to meet."

"Who is it?"

The boy staring at me has an annoyed frown, his eyebrows twitching slightly. There are several servants tending to him: combing his hair, messaging his feet, tending to his nails. The boy looks same age as me, about seven or eight, with dark hair and red eyes that look like jewels.

"Why have you let a commoner in?" My eye twitches.

Another servant glances at me with just as much irritation before it disappears in the next second. They clear their throat before speaking, "Judar, this is another magi. She's been reborn, like you."

I hear Hessa groan slightly and I glance at her. She looks angry, but it quickly melts away into a smile, "Go on, introduce yourself."

I turn back to the boy, he is staring down at me with a half-bored expression. I approach him in his throne-like chair, before the servants block my path.

"That's close enough."

My eyebrow twitches but I comply, I grab the edges of my simple white dress and curtsey. The dress was made of cotton, and wrapped around my body in a way that wouldn't interfere with my movement for training. Training was the only reason I didn't have nicer clothes.

"My name is Tahira, Magi of balance from the realm of Lunaria. Pleased to make your acquaintance."

When I lift my head again, the boy, Judar, is scowling at me.

"Your name doesn't sound that nice," he mumbles, still loud enough for me to hear.

"E-excuse me?"

"Heh," the boy gives a smirk and stands, he slowly approaches me as I let go of my dress and rise from my curtsey.

When he's closer to me, he frowns again. "And what's with your hair?" He grabs a handful of my hair, the curly locks wrapping around his fingers. My hair wasn't long, it was just at my shoulders, so I winced in pain.

"Stop!" I yell.

Judar scowls again, "It's so curly, it's not straight at all." His fingers explore my head some more, his face has an expression I've never seen before, "It is soft though."

I grab his hand, digging my nails into his skin, "Let go!"

Judar hisses and his fingers unwind, he clutches his hand, the imprint of my nails showing up on his pale skin. "You wrench!"

Hessa steps forward and places a hand on my shoulder, "I believe that's enough, young magi." Her voice is strict, her stance firm. Her legs were spread wide into her usual fighting stance, it was then I wondered how strong this magi is.

"Tch, I'm done with her anyway. She's not interesting at all," Judar claims while turning his back to me and walking back towards his throne-like chair. He turns to me one last time and stick his tongue out at me while pulling his bottom eyelid down, I stick out my tongue in return. Hessa shoots me her stern glare next and I stop. Judar disappears behind a large door in the corner of the room with most of his servants.

"Tahira, please wait outside for me," Hessa commands, she's being so stern that I quickly leave. From the doorway, I still hear Hessa speaking with a few of Judar's servants in hushed voices:

"He's still just as wild as he was before."

"He was just reborn, Hessa."

There's a long pause, "At this rate he'll be just like he was before. How do you plan to prevent him from being the dark magi he was before?"

"We have our ways . . . You should be thankful, Hessa, that that child of yours isn't slain right here and now."

"Tahira is the rightful replacement for Judar! There is no need to murder her when Judar is in no position to return to Earth!" Hessa inhales sharply and lowers her tone:

"Perhaps this was too soon for them to meet. If we wish for them to work together, I expect Judar to be much more polite and know his place in this team."

Silence. "Unless . . . you would rather for Tahira to continue to train on her own? Lunaria is still satisfied with the idea of her carrying out her fate alone."

"N-no . . . Give us time. His behavior will be much better the next time they meet. Judar will definitely work with Tahira."

"I expect so," with that, Hessa stomps away and opens the door. She grabs my hand and we leave the castle without any more words.