I have been playing around with this chapter for a long time and I was bored so I finally decided to post it.

It is from the perspective of some of the sorcerers and the people who helped them during the purge.

There will be a younger Uther and a younger Gaius involved in later chapters.

Hope you enjoy.

The black feather

It has been four years, eight months, and three days. The small hourglass that sat by my table counted the seconds. The grains of sand fell like snowflakes. Slow. They piled at the bottom and were a painful reminder to how long it has been since the darkest of the dark days. The memories of the beginning of the purge still play over and over in my head like the songs mama sang to the little ones when they cried.

I still hear the cries. Not the ones of my younger siblings. No, these cries are of fear and pain. The noise would break a hundred hearts and it had. It still does. My heart was one of the hundreds that were shattered and mine is one of the thousands that will never be put back together. Pieces of my heart are gone forever, dead, if you will. Without them I will never heal.

Most people try to look away as Uther gives the order. The same one he gave four years eight months and three days ago. I will never forget what those words brought down upon us because I can never look away. Not anymore.

He destroyed my world before it was made and he did it with confidence. I can never forgive, and I certainly can never forget. It was the worst when the purge first began. People who practiced magic were well known. I knew the face of every person they took away that first week before the sorcerers began to hide.

So many of them were taken. Uther said he was saving the people. Tell that to the weeping people who flocked the streets everyday that year when more and more of their friends and loved ones were taken away. Even the innocent ones like Edith who lived next door to me. Her son had practiced medicine magic. Both of them were taken away that first week.

The first week was the worst because it was the time when no one knew what was happening. The King had made the announcement but not everyone was there to hear it. No one in my little town knew until the soldiers arrived.

Almost half of our town disappeared over the span of a month. There was news that the same thing was happening everywhere else too. I cannot deny that I was one of the weeping people who filled the streets everyday. My eyes dried up and soon I was unable to cry anymore.

My tears may have been gone but my voice was still loud and strong. I yelled and screamed at the soldiers who took young Tad away with them. Tad was what we called him because he loved tadpoles. We used to tease him about it sometimes. He had been obsessed with them. Now I would give anything to hear him make one of his bad Tadpole jokes. They were so bad that we would all be on the ground laughing. I never feel that kind of happiness again.

I hung off one of the arms that were pulling him away. Another girl, Sabia, clung to the other soldier. We weighed them down, giving Tad's mother, Ms. Sabrina, enough time to say goodbye to her son.

Ms. Sabrina was taken away three days later. She went willingly, believing she might see her Tad again. I wonder if she did?

The soldiers who carted them away were not kind to those who resisted the law. I have the bruises to prove it. We all lived in fear of the law. Even the neighbor of a magic user could be taken away for coming into contact with said person.

Silently a small group was made. We were the interceptors. Our job was to get in the soldiers way or delay them some how. Sometimes our work freed one of the sorcerers and would allow them to escape. Sometimes we would only give family just enough time to say goodbye like we did with Tad and his mother.

Our group grew and we would take turns so the soldiers would not think that we were doing it on purpose. If they ever did we would all be taken away like the sorcerers we were trying to protect. That is also against the "oh so perfect law".

The group was made up mostly of children and the grownups didn't even suspect us. They didn't suspect when once a week most of the children would disappear to a secret meeting to discus new ideas. Magnus led us. He was one year older then I, I was 18, and he was the eldest of our group. We would have all worked alone if it weren't for him and we may even have been caught, but he brought us together.

Usually the soldiers would come to our village at least twice a week but one week they fell silent and didn't come. We knew better then to relax with this sudden absence of chaos. Instead we took this time to track down any sorcerers left in our town and secretly help them to hide. Many of them left to try and hide in the forest. I am sad to say that this was the reason many of them were caught as they ran, their guilt obvious to their captors.

We did convince many of them to stay. When I say many I mean only a few people. Their numbers had dwindled since the first wave of the purge two months before. We hid them as well as we could in our town. We only asked those loyal to our group that bore the symbol of the black feather. If they carried our symbol we new they were loyal. A black feather was simple enough that no one thought it strange for someone to carry it in his or her pocket.

I carried the same black feather in the left pocket of my jacket that I usually wore over my dress. I found myself often worming my hand silently into my pocket to stroke the soft feather. The feeling of it against my skin is the feeling of hope. I guess I should have known that hope would not have lasted forever.

Magnus and I were setting up a room in a secret space billow the floorboards of one of our supporter's house to get it ready for one of the sorcerers to move in that week before the soldiers decided to return. We hid the floorboards we had pulled up under a carpet.

Narayan, loyal to our cause and the one whose house this was, thanked us for our work. Over the months we had become used to performing such tasks. A middle-aged man stood behind him, Narendra, I believe it was. He had used magic to make himself stronger so that he could work more easily on his farm not far from our town. Because of the purge he was forced to sell his land so he and his family could go into hiding. He had sent the rest of his family as far away from himself as possible so they may not be taken because of him.

I looked at Narendra with admiration. He had thought of his family over himself. I must admit that if I were in that situation I would have wanted my family with me the whole way but I guess I also wouldn't want them to be put through that. That must have been Narendra's reason for sending them so far away.

Luckily my family did not live in that town so my antics would not get them into trouble. I had come to live here to become apprentice to Lavania and make pots, bowls, and things like that. I liked to work with ceramics. I know how strange it is to think that I had gone there with so simple a goal in my head but to be pulled into this world of deceit. I would not give it up though. If I were not an interceptor I would be sitting in my little house wondering if there was anything I could do. I don't think I would be able to take it. The feeling of helplessness would be overpowering, driving me mad.

Magnus pulled up the floorboards and we helped Narendra inside. We had given him as much food as we could spare with everyone else we had to help. If he needed more Narayan was willing to get it for him.

Our week of silence was short lived. Soon enough the soldiers returned to search for the sorcerers. Their search bore little fruit but fruit it bore. Olwen hadn't told us she used to use magic and we had failed to figure it out. She begged the soldiers to have mercy and that she had only ever used magic once a very long time ago and she would never do it again, but they were def to her pleas.

I looked to Magnus who was already signaling one of our comrades to make their move. Olwen's sister, Fionn, ran to her and tried to pull her away from the soldiers. With this distraction Holt, one of our younger members, placed a hornets' nest carefully behind the soldiers. He was so quick about it that I barely even saw him even though I was looking for him.

One of the soldiers slapped Fionn across the face, causing her to let go of her sister. With this sudden release, the soldiers, still holding Olwen tight, stumbled backwards and right on top of the hornets' nest. The hornets burst forth from their shattered home and attacked the soldiers.

In their surprise they had let go of Olwen who ran back to Fionn. Together they escaped the chaos. They ran round the side of a building where I was waiting for them. At first Olwen thought I was a spy for the king and tried to run in a different direction but Fionn managed to pull her back. I pulled the black feather from my pocket and showed it to Fionn. She did the same.

I beckoned them to follow me. Fionn pulled Olwen along behind her; Olwen still didn't quite understand what was going on. I hurried them back to Narayan's house. He was startled when we came barging through the front door but at the sight of Olwen he immediately lead us to the back room. He moved the carpet slightly and pulled up the floorboards.

Narendra had heard the commotion and had thought the soldiers had found him. His fretting was for nothing when I lowered Olwen down next to him. Realizing what was happening he helped her to solid ground. We were forced to send Fionn down as well. Her distraction may have helped save her sister but it would make her the first suspect. This was the sacrifice many of us interceptors were forced to bare.

As quickly as possible we put the floorboards back into place along with the carpet, then went out the front door as if to see what all the commotion was about outside. The soldiers had somehow managed to drive to hornets away and were looking around confused as to where their prisoner had gone.

Narayan and I blended into the crowd. One of the soldiers yelled in outrage and ordered the others to search the entire town for the girl. It was these times that made us all hold our breaths. There were at least eleven sorcerers still hiding in our town. The group of the black feather all crossed their fingers in prayer that they would not find one of their hiding places.

My heart pounded in my chest as I saw them head into Narayan's house. Narayan himself followed them, as it was his house. The soldiers pushed their way to the backroom. They shoved the crates, which were stacked there, to the ground.

I followed Narayan into his house. I caught my breath when I saw them rip up the carpet. Luckily none of them saw my face, as it would have given it all away. I pulled the scarf that I wore around my head further over my forehead to cover the sweat.

Both of us let out a sigh of relief when they did not notice that some of the floorboards had been moved recently. They pushed past us out of the house. Narayan yelled after them about the crates they had pushed over. He earned a kick to the stomach from one of their leather boots for that. He buckled over and groaned. I knelt down beside him to see if he was ok but I said nothing. I did not want to draw them back again.

The soldiers left our town without another word but I knew they would not be gone for long. Word of the sorcerer's escape would soon make its way back to Camelot. The king would be outraged. I was always scared that with all of the sorcerers from our town that had escaped that the king would suspect us. These were dangerous times. I heard of a town not too far from us had been burnt to the ground for opposing the king.

The report was that there were no survivors but the rumors spread like wild fire between us common folk that some had escaped. It was stories like these that razed our spirits even after such a tragedy.

Unfortunately as the purge continued people started to fall victim to Uther's way of thinking. Magnus and I traveled to a neighboring town to get some supplies for one of the sorcerers we were hiding. While there we watched helpless as a cart rolled by. It carried a cage with a sorcerer inside. Damn bounty hunters. They were more dangerous then the soldiers that usually came and we had not found a way to deal with them.

There was an elderly man inside. He looked weary and tired. He looked so helpless and weak but still people picked up their rotten fruit and hurled it at the old man. I wanted to yell at them to stop but Magnus held me back. "We cannot interfere Red Wing." He whispered my codename in my ear. Every member of the group had one.

"But Blackbird." I protested and tried to pull away from him. With all my efforts I was not able to break free. Soon I gave up and just watched in panic as the cart disappeared from sight.

"We cannot help everyone." He warned. "We must start small. When we build up our forces and increase our numbers we may be able to save more then the people in our own town. Do you understand?" I nodded.

But our numbers would not grow fast enough. Not fast enough to save them all. I should now that more then most.

The night that would thrust me even further into the purges embrace happened four years, five months, and ten days ago. I will never forget that night.

It was raining, I remember. Even though it was late and I was unable to acquire the comfort of sleep. I was sitting at the kitchen table of my small house when fate came knocking. The house I lived in was split into two separate apartments. Lavania lived on the other side of the wall.

The knock came again, more insistent this time. I grabbed my scarf and pulled it over my head before I answered the door. I opened it to reveal Magnus, in one of his dark cloaks, panting hard. The sight of him in such a state was strange until I saw the small figure hiding under the arm of his cloak.

She was shivering with the cloak failing to keep either of them dry. I looked at Magnus questioningly about the girl. He panted, trying to get his breath back. Finally, after taking a few deep breaths he answered my glare.

"They were chasing her." He gasped for air. "We ran here all the way from the next town over." That explained why they looked so tired and why I didn't recognize the girl.

"Please Joone. I didn't know where else to go."

Thank you for reading and please REVIEW!

The next chapter should be up in about a week if not sooner.

If you have any ideas or characters you want me to add please tell me in your reviews or PM me.