Well, I'm back. I has been 2 years since I have touched this kind of fanfiction, and hopefully I can finished. I know I have great fan support, and know that y'all will keep me going. Please review. Oh, and if you haven't read any of my other stuff: .net/s/3094049/1/MidWinter….net/s/3116805/1/On_Progress…….net/s/3158657/1/Letters&.net/s/3191662/1/Abridged_Fantasies…...net/s/3175358/1/Swear(:

Legacy

Part 1 – Sarralyn

Sarralyn was sitting in the hayloft, her fingers stroking the back of a kitten. It purred loudly, and she smiled and pulled it close to her face. "I don't want him to leave," she whispered, and a few tears fell from her eyes.

"Sarra?" a boy's voice called up the wooden stairs.

"Go away!"

But the boy was persistent – she heard his footsteps on the wooden stairs and she got ready to face his reasoning. She saw his face slowly rising over the wooden floor, his blond hair short, his green eyes boring into her.

Colton Larse was staring at her, his twelve-year-old face looking handsome beyond his years. "Sarra, I'll be back soon, I promise."

She drew her legs in, and sniffled. Colton sighed, and leaning over the rail, took the back of her curly head in his head brought her face close to his. Then he kissed her lips quickly, with the nervousness that comes with a first kiss, and pulled away. "I promise to write everyday," he whispered, and fled down the stairs.

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Sarra was sitting in her bedroom, six years later. She was cross-legged in front of the wall length mirror that sat to the left of her door, staring at herself. Tears welled in her eyes.

She only wanted love; that was all. So why did she have to be rejected so, people whispering as she walked by, staring, running. She wished she had never been born into this strange family. She didn't want to be Daine Salmalin's daughter. She didn't want any of this.

Sarra stared at her reflection. She knew that she was considered beautiful – she had heard the Court whispers, seen the boy's eyes following her. She had big, black curls that fell on thin shoulders, stood at nine inches over five feet, and a long, fine face that had been the subject of many boy's comments over the years.

But then there were her eyes. She hated them, because they were the first thing that people saw that secluded her, let them know she was different, strange. Her left eye was blue, and her right was brown.

This, her father had explained, wasn't a phenomenon – simply it was the fact that she had different amounts of melanin in each eye, an alteration in the gene that controls eye color. But the fact that her eyes changed tones with her moods – well, that was one of the few things her father had difficulty explaining.

After people noticed her eyes, they noticed the other things about her.

Sarralyn had inherited her mother's full Widemage powers. She could speak to, heal, and shift to any animal she wished. But she did have something that her mother lacked – she was a shape shifter as well. She could reform her body into any person she wanted – yes, even a male. (She really didn't like it, though, so she only did it when absolutely necessary.)

This is what made people hesitant towards her. She had no friends of her own age, since they were all afraid of her. She had no love interests, even though she was beautiful. She wasn't normal.

"Sarra?" she heard her father call. She sighed, and wiped the tears away from her pink cheeks. There was a knock on her door as she stood. "Sarra, your brother is about to come up. Can you make some tea for us?"

"Sure," she said clearly, and went to her wardrobe to change out of her nightshirt. She heard her father shut the door, and let out a sigh of relief. Sarra pulled out a pair of black breeches, which fit over her curving hips tightly, and a shirt in her favorite red. She tied her hair back with a red ribbon, and went back to stare at her self in the mirror, watching her eyes turn from dark blue and brown to a slightly lighter hue.

She opened her door, which lead to the common room of her family's rented rooms at the palace. She put a kettle of tea on the fire, and opened all the curtains, watching the snow fall slowly into place on the hills and town below. Thousands of books surrounded her, and she sat on the couch and watched the way the mid winter sun shone off the dozens of trinkets her father had given her mother over the years.

The main door opened at the same time the kettle sang. She went to lift it off the fire, listening to her families' voices fill the air.

"Sarra," she heard her mother say. "Say hello to you brother – he's missed you."

Sarra sighed, and turned to Rikash, then gasped. He stood almost a foot taller than when she had last seen him in the early summer, and now towered over her.

"Hullo, big sister," he said with a smile. His voice was deeper too, and his face was angular and tan, with their father's nose and mother's grey blue eyes. His mop of tight black curls sprung from his head, bouncing when he moved. "Be a dear and get me some tea, alright?" He crashed into an armchair. "I'm weary from my travels."

"Get your own tea," Sarra mumbled angrily.

"Sarra," he mother warned. She was shorter than Sarra, and her curly brown hair was in a mane around her round face.

"Ma! He's going to make me his Mid-Winter slave, I know it!"

"Sarra, just get him some tea."

"NO!" she shouted, her temper flaring, her body growing very warm, and one of the bookcases, which lined the walls, rocked with the force of an earthquake. They all watched it, in shocked silence, as it fell to the ground, sending books everywhere.

Her mother's eyes were on her father, yearning for an answer. Both Numair and Rikash were staring at her.

"Who did that?" Daine asked, her voice almost shaking. Numair came over Sarra, stepping over his books, and put his massive hands on either side of her head, his fingers pressing gently on her throbbing temple. Suddenly, she was looking in herself, at her magic, but it was different. Very different.

Her father pulled away, and withheld her mother with a slightly hesitant glance. "I was afraid of this," he said.

"Afraid of what?"

He sighed, moving a few books from the couch, and sitting. "You see, Daine, I have always suspected that Sarra was Gifted. That would be the only reasonable explanation to her shifting – because wild magic, or so I think, is simply linked to animals. But she has never shown any Gifted qualities, nor has she ever possessed any Gift-like magic."

"What?" Sarra breathed.

Numair sighed, and looked up at Sarra. "You're Gifted, and because of your wild magic, and the fact that you have let it go uncultivated so long, it's . . . out of hand."

"Out of hand?" Sarra and Daine whispered at the same time.

"Very much so. It's amazing – it's almost like it has come on like a sudden cold. I have never seen anything like it – but, of course, I have never seen anything like you, my little Wildmage." He chuckled.

"Numair, this is no laughing matter!" Daine said loudly. "What is going to happen to Sarra?"

Numair sighed, and smoothed back his graying horse tail. "I will have to put up several blocks in her mind, much like I did with you, magelet. Then I think Sarra should join Rikash at the University so she can – "

"NOOOOOO!" Rikash yelled, pushing away from the back of the chair. "Da, no! No! She will ruin my life!"

"Rikash, your sister needs mental discipline. Besides, it will be good for Sarralyn to met a few new people her own age."

Sarra's mind turned on the prospect of people her own age – particularly, one person. Colton. She hadn't seen him in four years, since he had last come home from the university to visit. He had written to her only twice, letters that had been opened and reopened so many times they were falling apart at the seams. Colton, the only boy who had ever thought her normal. Dear, sweet Colton.

"I want to go," Sarra said defiantly.

"NOOO!" Rikash yelled again.

Numair smiled, and rose. "I'll go see what I can work out, then." He leaned down to kiss her forehead on the way out, and whispered, "I knew you always had it." Then he shut the door.

Rikash put his head in his hands. "My life is over," he whispered. Daine hurried from the room and out the door, after her husband.

"Little brother," Sarra said affectionately, "why is your life over?"

"Because," he said in a small voice, sitting up, "you're going to ruin it. I hate you, Sarra."

Sarra beamed.

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Daine ran down the hall, reaching out to grab the back of Numair's shirt to stop him. The hall was decorated with portraits of fine ladies, which hung in expensive frames. Daine and Numair were the first common born people to ever live on this hall, which they moved to soon after Rikash was born. Of course, the people on this hall didn't really like the Salmalins – especially not Sarra or Rikash, whose powers were unknown when they were little. But, eventually, the neighbors had grown used to them, and even nodded their heads or said "Good morning" as they passed by.

"Numair," she said, stepping in front of him and putting her hands out to stop him. "This . . . you had to have known."

He sighed. "Daine, I offered to test her a hundred times for the Gift, but you wouldn't let me."

"That's because she's never had it!"

"Shhh," Numair whispered, and took her face in his big hands. "It's only been – hiding. It isn't extremely powerful, but I don't know how her wild magic will react. That's why I think it's best for her to go to the university – not for long, maybe as little as a year – "

"A year?" Daine squeaked. Numair sighed.

"Daine, think of Sarralyn's best interests here. All she does is work in the stables and attend Court functions. It will be good for her to socialize with people her age – especially Gifted people, who might understand her a little better."

"But I don't want her to leave," Daine whispered.

Numair sighed again, and took her arm, pushing her to walk. "But won't it be nice," he whispered in her ear, "to have the rooms to ourselves again?"

She smiled, and laughed a little. "You're right," she said, and squeezed his hand.

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Rikash couldn't remember the last time he had attended a Court function – oh wait, he was twelve, and a little boy. Now he was fifteen – a man – and the way the girls looked at him was completely different.

Rikash knew he was good looking. His soft hair, his big, sharp blue eyes, his height – not to mention his family, and his magic – would win him any heart.

Rikash was destined to be the next Numair Salmalin, and the entire Court knew it. He was just as powerful, and just as brilliant. In fact, he was so smart, he was already on Colton's robe level, and was three years his junior.

Of course, there was no black robe at the Tortallian University – the program wasn't that advanced. In a few years he would make his way to Carthak, and follow in his father's footsteps to become the next black robe of Tortall.

So to say Rikash was arrogant wasn't right – he was just confident of his future.

"Hullo," he said to a girl who had been walking by. She looked a little older than him, her dark hair long and gleaming down her back. But that wasn't what caught his eye – her breasts were situated to sit high on her chest, so much so that they looked as if they might fall out at any minute.

The Court whirled by in an assortment of festive colors – greens, reds, and golds. There were wreaths hung from every wall, and a giant fir tree was lit up with globes of magic and decorated with red berries.

"Hullo," she said back, swinging her hips.

"That is a lovely color on you, I must say. Do you come to these dances often?"

She smiled. "Of course I do, Master Rikash."

He smiled. "Now, that isn't fair. If you know my name, I need to know yours."

She smiled, her eyes gleaming. "You have been gone a long time, haven't you?"

"Too long," he said gravely. She laughed.

"Kiya."

He took her hand and kissed it. "My dear Lady Kiya, do you not find this party frightfully boring?"

She smiled, and sighed dramatically. "Dreadfully so."

"Would you like to get some air, then?"

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Sarra hated Court dances. She hated the way all the young men would stare at her, whispering at her, smiling like she was some kind of trophy cow that they weren't allowed to have. She stood in the corner, miserable.

Her father appeared from out of nowhere at her side, and asked her how she was doing.

"Fine," she said, folding her arms.

He sighed, watching the young men that had been staring at Sarra flee. "It will be better at school, sweetling. I promise."

She sighed, and stared at her feet. "Do you know where Colton is? He's supposed to come home for Mid-Winter."

"He's a very busy young man, Sarra. And very talented. He is probably working on his studies. He has a lot of work to do if he is going to graduate before Rikash." Numair chuckled.

"Well, that's because Rikash is so smart he doesn't even have to study – which makes him lazy. It will catch up with him, eventually."

Numair smiled down at his daughter, and kissed the top of her head. "You are as stubborn as your mother."

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Rikash had taken Kiya down a flight of stairs to an empty library, where he sat her on the long wooden table and kissed her. She took his hands and pushed them against her breasts, and he became dizzy with feelings inside him. He kissed her harder, held her closer, and his fingers played with the back of her corset.

Then the door opened. Kiya heard it first, and pulled away, pulling her dress up over her exposed chest.

"Kiya!" a male voice called. "I know you're in here!"

Kiya's mouth opened, and she looked at Rikash with panic in her eyes.

"Run," she whispered.

"Why?"

"Just run."

Rikash ran behind the nearest bookcase, where he could see between the empty shelves. A man approached, his fat stomach spilling over his waistline, his embodied tunic a bit too tight.

"Why are you down here?"

"I . . . lost my way, after stepping out for air."

He grabbed her hand and dragged pulled her off the table. "I should have never married such a stupid girl," he said angrily. Rikash held in a gasp.

They were married? This old, fat lord and this beautiful young girl? He felt a pang in his heart as she was pulled away. She turned around to wave goodbye to him.

"Happy Mid-Winter," he whispered to her, and blew her a kiss that she didn't see.

It will be much more interesting next chapter, when Sarra meets up with her long lost Colton – who seems to have changed a bit – and Rikash learns that he has quite a way with the girl (just like his daddy).