PROLOGUE

"Take the baby! Take her!", a man with a big scar under his left eye roared and kicked the front door of a lovely cottage wide open.

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In the back room, a woman crouching on the floor, holding her baby girl tightly. "I'm sorry darling. I'm so sorry. I wish I could protect you, but I can't. I'm so sorry", she sobbed. The man at the door looked at her with pleading eyes, "There's no times for crying. Send her away. I can't hold the door much longer. Those beasts are already banging on it like maniacs. SEND HER AWAY!"

The baby stirred at his shout and started crying. Her mother hushed, her fingers stroked the baby's milky cheek, "Now dear, don't cry. Crying is not pretty". With a light wave of the hands, a portal appeared and floated a couple of inches above the ground, its haze casted a purplish light on the baby girl's white skin. The woman kissed her child's forehead one last time and gently wrapped a small book in the blanket.

"I know I'll see you again someday dear. I know, 'cause I'm a prophet, aren't I? In my flame I saw all of us sitting together one day when you've grown into a beautiful girl. All of us will be just like a real family! So goodbye for now, Rosemarie Hathaway Mazur", she smiled sadly, pushed the little girl through the portal and shut it. A tear threatened to escape and she fought to push it down. The man looked at her with a pained expression, but forced himself to ask, "Are you ready?".

The pain in her eyes faded, a smile slowly found its way to her full lips, "Ready as ever!".

A devilish grin spread across his face, "So let's blow'em up! We couldn't protect our daughter doesn't mean we can't protect ourselves!". She nodded, conjuring a red flame between her slender fingers. They both took a deep breath in unison. The man formed a water globe around them and let go of the door.

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The soldiers rushed into the room. A thought suddenly formed in their heads, "A water wizard! It can't be!". The man smirked as if he could read thoughts. The leader quickly recovered and barked an order, "Show us the girl! Don't even try to fight us. I know you can't do magic with a baby at hand"

The woman answered in a sing-song voice, "Why should we tell you? We could just kill all of you right now!"

"No can do 'mam. The mails and weapons were charmed by our most powerful wizard. There's no way your pitiful witchcraft can break through the spell", he threw his head back in laughter, "Even your water, mister Powerful Wizard".

"Wrong thinking!", an animalistic growl escape the woman's throat as fire flared in her hands. The water turned into steam as soon as it made contact with the flame. The steam found their way to the evil men as if it had eyes. Inside their miserable bodies, steam boiled their blood, its continuous twisting and stretching broke the veins. Blood pooled under their skin, oozing out their noses and mouths and ears. Their eyeballs turned red, their face turned purple. In the agonizing pain, the leader clawed at his throat, the thin skin broke and black poisonous blood gushed out. Their cries for mercy came too late and the second it escaped their swollen lips, they stopped. Dead silence took over. Six stained bodies fell lump on the ground like useless sacks of meat.

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Two standing people sighed in relief. They looked at each other and big grins spread across their faces. The woman laughed, "If I'd known killing those people was so easy, I could have just hid Rose under our bed. Those so-called wise wizards obviously haven't thought of making those charms steam-proof". Suddenly, her face turned serious, "But she would be safer there than here. Do you seriously think I made the right choice?".

The man looked at her with loving eyes, "I know you did. You were thinking for her, not yourself. Now, back to our main problem here. We've just killed some of the finest soldiers of the Court. The bubblehead on the high seats will definitely chase us down to the end of this world. Not mention the people of the Rebel. They won't be so polite to us now that we sent Rose away instead of handling her to them. So what do we do?".

She laughed again, "Of course we would do whatever we need to do, silly! Starting with getting the hell out of here. Being caught at the scene of a slaughter kinda sucks, don't you think?". With that, she jumped out the window and ran into the wood. The man smiled. That woman never failed to amuse him. He shook his head and followed her. If running away is what she truly wants right now, he'll run with her until his last breath.