The Flame

This storm is really picking up… she thought as she ran to the front door of her friend's house. She pounded on the door as the wind whipped her long black hair against her face. She brushed the hair to the side nervously looking around her. Hope opened the door with a suitcase in her hand.

"Are you going somewhere in this weather?" She asked hope.

"Marina! Uhm… No. Now's not a good time," she replied. Marina pushed past her and walked into the almost empty house.

"When were you going to tell me you're moving?" Marina asked, "Never mind, it doesn't matter. Listen, I'm going to be leaving again. This guy is following me and I just can't stay."

"I don't have time. Come with me, you don't have any attachment here, right?" Hope replied.

"No, where are we going?" Marina replied.

"Well, it's earlier than I planned but this tornado that's coming pushed my plans forward. We are going to Nightfall. Unfortunately, Koranen hasn't found his mate yet…Ugh... This is too soon. Alright, here's how it'll go. Right here," she said pointing to the wall, "There is going to be a portal. I need you to go through first and I'll follow. We have to get through before the tornado hits. A hand will reach through the portal, you grab it and hold tight."

The wind picked up outside and they could hear stuff being blown over. A loud voice boomed into the room and Marina jumped.

"Hurry up!" Hope yelled over the loud wind blowing harder. A hand reached through the wall.

"Grab it, hurry!" Hope yelled pushing Marina toward the hand. Marina grabbed the hand with her gloved hand and held tight. She was sucked through a portal and froze looking around at a sunny warm place. The man holding Marina's hand pulled her to the side and grabbed Hope's hand pulling her through just before the tornado hit the house. Marina stared slack jawed as the image on the mirror changed. The booming voice came again and the portal was closed but they could still see the house being torn apart. Marina took in her surroundings as she watched Hope hug another woman. There were so many people here. Six huge men and four women she never met. Her eyes fell on a red haired man with beautiful golden eyes, he was staring at her.

"Marina! Sorry, this is Kelly," she said hugging the woman again.

"Oh I remember you talking about her! Hi, it's nice to finally meet you!" Marina said shaking her hand.

"Marina is always cold, she never takes those gloves or that jacket off," Hope explained with a laugh. The red haired man's eyebrows rose.

"She's from earth, though," the man that pulled me through said to the red haired man, "There is no magic there."

"That's Morganen," Kelly said, "And this is my husband, Saber. That's Alys and Wolfer, Evanor and Mariel, Trevan and Amara, Koranen and Morganen. Rydan and Rora are asleep, and Dominor and Serina are at Koral-tai, but I'm sure you'll meet them soon."

"It's nice to meet you. Forgive me if I don't remember your names yet. I'll try to remember them as quickly as possible," Marina replied.

"What happened? I thought only Hope was coming through," Amara said.

"There was a last minute change of plans. Sorry Morg. Marina showed up just before the tornado. She wanted to leave too so I figured I'd just bring her along," Hope replied.

"You have beautiful eyes," Kelly said, "They are such a beautiful ice blue."

"Thank you," Marina replied with a shy smile.

"I think you'll have to stay in Kor's wing because we weren't expecting you but there are a few recently cleaned empty rooms there for you to choose from. Hope, you will stay in Morg's wing," Kelly said leading us into a gorgeous castle. Marina felt as if she was pulled back in time. Koranen walked beside her and gestured for her to follow him down a separate hall. She watched the walls as the butterflies were flying over a field of flowers.

"How the heck does that work?" She asked as she stopped and touched the wall where a butterfly was.

"It's paint. Magic paint Morganen created," Kor responded, "It keeps people from scrying on us."

"Scrying? What's that?" she asked.

"It's like spying on us from far away using a mirror. We had a big problem with people sending animals to try and kill us. This was the solution. That and killing Alys's uncle. He was the one sending them," Koranen replied, "Anyway; you don't have to worry about that now. These are your rooms. If you need anything I'm right next door there, but make sure you don't touch me if you need something in the middle of the night. I run a little hotter than most people and I might burn your skin."

"Okay, thanks for the warning," she replied as she walked into the room. The first room was like a sitting room. It had a beautiful fireplace and comfortable chairs as well as the magic paint that adorned the other walls. This time it was fall in a forest with falling leaves everywhere. She walked into another doorway and found a big bed with a canopy and another doorway that led to a bathroom.

"Wow, this is a lot of space," she said to herself as she walked to the bathroom and peeked inside.

"Do you think it's okay to have brought Marina? Morganen did say that we had to trade mass for mass," Kelly said to Hope after Marina left.

"I hope so. I don't think she'll be too much trouble here. I've only known her for a couple of weeks but she was very nice. She was really nervous about something though. I think it was probably good to bring her here because she seemed to be running from something, or someone," Hope replied.

"Oh, well at least she will be welcome here and hopefully feel safe enough to tell us what was going on. I'm worried about Koranen though. He hasn't found his girl yet and you are here for Morg. It's going to make him worse. I just know it. He keeps having incidents where he burns his chair, or makes everyone around him sweat. He knows it is his turn to find a mate and he has really been looking forward to it. Morg still hasn't found anyone since the Aquamancer's didn't work out. We didn't see Koranen for weeks after we realized that," Kelly said.

"I know I'm going to try and help Morg by looking through the library," Hope replied, "There has to be a place where people are colder or something like that."

"I'm so happy you're here now. I missed you," Kelly said hugging her dear friend.

"Me, too. I missed you so much," Hope replied hugging her back.

Marina took off her jacket and elbow length gloves. She looked at the number tattoo with a snowflake next to it and frowned. Her skin was pale white.

'I'm sure they think I'm a vampire or something with this pale cold skin. It's too bad I'll never be able to hug them or feel what anyone's skin actually feels like,' Marina thought as she turned around and saw the tattooed wings on her back. A knock came from the open door and Marina jumped. She turned and saw Koranen standing there with a smile on his face.

"What's the number for?" he asked pointing to her arm.

"Oh, it's nothing," She replied covering it with her hand. She rushed over to the chair and put her gloves back on and then the jacket.

"I'm sorry to bother you, but it's lunch time and I figured you'd be hungry," Koranen said.

"Thanks," she replied walking toward him.

"You know, you can trust us. You're safe here, we won't hurt you," Kor said looking into her eyes. Marina smiled and put her hand on his cheek.

"Thank you. I'm sorry if I seem guarded. It's just how I grew up. I know they won't be able to get me in a whole different dimension. They're technology is advanced but not that far advanced," she said with a laugh.

"You're so cold. Do you want me to get a fire going in here, or something? It wasn't that cold earlier," Koranen replied putting his hands over hers.

"Sorry, I'm always cold. It's not a problem," Marina replied pulling her hand out of his, "Where's the uhm…. Dining room? I'm not sure what you call it here…"

"Oh that reminds me. In a couple of weeks they will have a ceremony for you and give you some ultra tongue. It's a potion that tastes really bad but it'll make you able to speak to anyone on or off the Island, but you have to pledge yourself to be a Nightfaller," Koranen said as he lead me to a room with a huge table and a bunch of chairs. Saber, Kelly, Evanor, Mariel, Mikor, Trevan, Amara, and Hope were already seated and talking to each other. Koranen sat down and Marina took a seat next to him.

"Can I sit here, or is this spot taken?" she asked.

"It's not taken, you can sit there," he replied with a smile.

"Queen Kelly, can we use the stone on the new people here?" Amara asked looking at Hope and Marina.

"Amara… They are from a dimension that has no magic," Kelly replied.

"They could still try to…. you know…," Amara replied.

"Alright," Kelly replied opening something on her wrist and pushing buttons. Morganen popped up from the bracelet.

"Yes?" Morganen asked.

"Can you bring a truth stone with you?" Kelly asked.

"Sure, I'll be there in a moment," Morganen replied.

"Everyone has to do this," Koranen said, "I think you'll have to take your gloves off for it though."

"Oh, no, I can't. I'm sorry, I can't do it," Marina said getting up and running from the room.

"What does she have with those gloves?" Amara asked.

"I saw her with them off earlier and there was a number on her arm in some kind of ink," Koranen said, "What do you think it means, Kelly?"

"I'm not sure. Back where I come from people get tattoo's of lots of different things. Or it could be like a brand of some sort," Kelly replied, "Like they use to brand cattle so that people know who they belong to."

"Do you think she was a slave?" Koranen asked.

"We don't have slaves anymore," Kelly replied with a laugh, "It could be a military thing or her birthday or something. You'll have to ask her."

"I did, she was very guarded about it. She said it was nothing and covered it right away," Koranen replied.

"That's strange, normally when people get tattoo's it's to show them off," Kelly replied, "You can usually ask about it and they'll say something. People are proud of the tattoo's."

"Yeah," Hope replied, "That is sort of strange."