Me: First story....well first on fanfiction. My other story is original so it's not up here :-P Okie, so I don't own the Old Kingdom (wouldn't that be cool! Own it, like stick it in your pocket and cast charter magic at various people who annoy you...) Garth Nix does sigh (so he can stick it in his pocket?!)Read and Review, yeah it helps to read first! I thought I might as well do a charter mage's story, especially with angstie against parents evil grin. Thank you to the two people who disregarded my earlier warning and read and reviewed anyway ;)
Listening avidly to the stories of the Old Kingdom, it was obvious that things could easily go very wrong. Anpehn was listening to her teacher with a different view, after hearing about the Old Kingdom for the first time almost 9 autums ago, Anpehn had become attached. Her father thought it was unhealthy, her mother just knew it kept her occupied and out of trouble most days. The first child of 5, an unseen adult in a child's body, for that's what most saw about Anpehn. At least part of her seemed like an adult on a regular basis, which was in her charter magic class.
It was there she felt normal, as normal as one who lived in Ancelstierre on the verge of the Wall could. Anpehn could feel in her bones that she belonged over the Wall, being useful with her magic. Once she passed her 17th summer that's where she planned to go. Mr. and Mrs. Flaghie were unaware of that as of yet, telling her parents wasn't going to get her across the wall at all.
Almost all of the other girls in the class at the moment were zoning out, one was even trying to write a note to a friend out of class. Anpehn sighed, she couldn't understand how they lived in this world apart. Her life was centered on that place inside, where she could feel the charter. She refrained from calling up marks to singe the other girl's paper, it was harder here at school to practice since it was further south than her house. She did bend into the charter though, no matter what anyone said, it wasn't freakish. The bell rang for her next class just as she reached the glowing swirl of light.
Shaking her head to come back to the "real world", Anpehn was glad she wasn't leaving the light for long. The bell, which was more like a large annoying buzzer, meant she was free to go to her afterschool Charter class. Since most girls didn't even admit the Charter was real, it wasn't required. Since a few other girls didn't want to admit they had the Charter in them, teachers couldn't really test anyone anymore. They had to hope the gifted ones came to them. Most of those who had been in the class had moved on, the girls near Anpehn's age were all terrified of the Charter. That left a lot of little girls ranging from 6 to 10 summers, and they all happened to adore "Nepa" as they called her.
"Nepa! Guess what? Kige and Terla are coming home with me today, their mom said they could stay for the weekend." A little bouncing "Nury" came up, since their idol had a backwards name now, everyone had changed theirs. Ekigelle, who was Kige, came running up and gave her Nepa a hug, "Nepa, they were doing it again though. Mom asked if we would be normal for her."
"Now what did Nepa say about that?" Anpehn looked down at her little blue eyes that had been welling up with tears. "That they don't know about the Light, so all they see is us being Dark, right?"
Yerun, the bouncing one had run off to find Alret, the Terla that was Kige's sister, Nury dragged her friend back to help Nepa. Kige was the oldest, other than Nepa, in the class at 10 summers, and both her and Kige were fighting with their parents about the Charter. Most of the parents of the girls didn't understand, and tired to rip that glowing swirl of light from them. "Nepa, didn't they say you were Dark once too? Who told you that we're from the Light?"
"Kige, no one told Nepa. Nepa reached out one day and felt the Light, and she remmebered the stories. Everytime they're being mean and talking about the Dark, reach out and make a little light to stick in your pocket. When you start glowing they'll realize that you aren't Dark!" Anpehn kneeled down and gathered the little ones in a big hug, "Sometimes I wonder if their names should be backwards and not ours, Nepa!" Kiga laughed a little at Terla's logic.
Noticie- May take me a little while to add more...the computer might deciede it's right again..Then I'll need super glue to make this work!