For seven years, I practiced the sword and bow. I also practiced the arts of balance, listening, tumbling, swimming, riding, and use of rope. I quickly learned that I was best at using a whip as a weapon, and decided to specialize in it.
But among those arts of war, I learned other more… discreet methods. I was a princess, and so diplomacy was something I had to learn whether I wanted to fight the Black Flame or not. I found out that bending other's wills to my own was far easier than I had ever thought, and my overall knowledge in things developed and expanded.
At night, when everyone else lay sleeping, I spent those precious hours honing my newly-found magic. I practiced my power of healing, moving silently, concentration, craft, perception, stealth, and spell-craft. I often looked at the book Ranien had taken from the study. Father knew I had it, and I sometimes wondered why he didn't take it away, but finally concluded that he must want me to learn more about myself. While studying the book, I often made myself "Flare Up", or so the book called it, to see what else I could do with that power.
My skin was as hot as Ranien's had been, and when I looked in the mirror, I looked exactly as I remembered her looking that fateful day. I also realized that the book was right about resistance to fire, because my skin was already so hot that putting my hand in my bedroom fireplace did little to no damage, even if left it there for a long period of time. But it was also correct about being weak to cold. One late winter night, it began to snow, and I wanted to test the theory of being weak to cold. After flaring up, I opened the window and the blast from the cold snow-drifted wind assaulted me like invisible ice sickles stabbing me all over my body. I immediately recalled my Phoenix-Born power, something the book called "Cooling Down." Although still in pain from before, the winter wind was no longer painful, but only an uncomfortable coldness.
Remembering another passage in my book about another of my powers, it said that "Fast Healing" was usable only when I'd "Cooled Down", and was quicker the more powerful I became. I immediately called on the power of Fast Healing to take the pain from the cold away. It was harder than I'd expected and required a lot more concentration than "Flaring Up". But, I eventually mastered that ability as well.
Things were going well. I believed myself ready to rescue Ranien. But things didn't quite go according to plan.
I was walking down the hallway toward the royal gardens, where I'd heard Father to be. I wanted to tell him, show him if necessary, that I was ready to rescue Ranien. That these past seven years were not in vain.
My steps carried a sense of purpose as I walked with Kolni and Ranin, two military generals and also my teachers, toward where I believed my father to be. I had spent more of my time with the commanders and generals of our army than I had with my tutors and etiquette ladies, and it showed. My frame was well built and toned, instead of willowy and fragile. My skin carried scars brought by training, where other court ladies' skin were blemish free. I cared nothing for these things. It did not matter to me how my appearance changed, as long as I was able to fulfill my mission.
Father had tried to dissuade, bribe, even trick me out of following this path, but I held true and did not let him. Many times I wanted to. Many times, I thought it would be so much easier to forget Ranien and live my own life. But then I remembered her face as she was led away for the last time. How that single tear had fallen from her dark green eyes as she had told me everything was going to be alright. She gave her life for mine. I would do the same for her.
Turning a corner, we opened a door and entered the royal gardens. Looking back on all my adventures, I now remember the royal gardens of being nothing beautiful. After all the colors I've seen, those gardens of black and grey, illuminated by the pale, filtered sunlight, can now hold no sway of awe over me. But for a Dar'okan Elf who's known nothing else, the royal gardens was a place of great beauty. The flower petals looked like black and white silk, the dew on the grass underfoot like tiny diamonds.
But I paid no attention to the frivolous flowers. I did not romanticize the dew on the ground. All I did at that time was walk with my comrades toward my father, a statue-looking being in the middle of a pixie-land.
"Father," I called out to him. Hearing my voice, he straightened from smelling a rose.
"Good afternoon, Kari," he smiled and replied, turning to face me. Seeing my companions, however, his eyes narrowed, his smile faded, and his voice grew suspicious. "What brings you here?"
"I'm ready, Father. Ready to bring back Ranien, and defend her, myself, and everyone else from the Black Flame." I stood before him like a soldier: head and shoulders high, but not with so much arrogance as belief in my own ability. Father quickly looked me over, and seemed to recognize the comparison between my stance and those of the men behind me.
"That is not how a princess should stand…" he said quietly, almost as though to himself. I chose not reply. He was quiet for a long time, lost in his own thoughts. He suddenly looked up and said, "Is this really what you want to spend your life doing?"
"Yes, Father," I replied without hesitation.
He sighed a somewhat resigned sigh. "Alright. But because I still worry about my little girl," he placed a gentle hand on my shoulder, "you'll have to show me what you can do before you head out on this fool's quest."
I glared. If he was calling it a "fool's quest", that meant he still didn't believe I could do it, even after all these years. Well, whatever test he had planned for me, I'd prove him wrong.
"Come to the arena tomorrow at dawn. There, we will start your test." With that said, he turned around and left the way I had come in.
The arena… He either wanted everyone in Dar'oka Deep to witness my test, or he needed a big enough field. Perhaps some combination of the two.
That night, I was in the training grounds practicing my whip techniques on a mannequin. I had to prove my father wrong, that way I could save my sister. She'd been locked away in that castle for too long. I didn't know why he still kept her there. Surely it was safe for her to come back. Lost in my own thoughts, and concentration on my technique, I barely heard the footsteps behind me. But I did hear them.
Quickly pivoting my body, I used my free hand to grab the dagger at my waist and stepped to the side, avoiding any possible attack. I was now behind my attacker and put my dagger to his throat.
"Who are you? Who sent you here?" The man's hands slowly raised in the air.
"Easy there, Princess," he said while turning around. "Though, if you avoid attacks like that tomorrow, your father's monsters have no chance." He turned around, and I recognized him at once.
It was Kolni, one of the generals I practiced with, and who had walked with me to meet my father. I smiled and put my weapon away.
"What brings you here so late?" I asked him.
He was young for a general. Or what the Dar'okan Elves consider young. He looked no older than thirty in Human years, but was actually around 115 years old. He had quickly become my best friend.
"Isn't that what I should be asking you? What are you doing here, training all by yourself? With a match at dawn, no less." He took a sword from a weapon rack and began swinging it around. To anyone who didn't know him, it would look careless, but I knew that he knew what he was doing, seeing as how he made general so young.
"I just thought I'd get a few whips in before heading to bed. Never hurts to be prepared," I replied.
"Speaking of being prepared," he said as he put the sword away, "what are you going to do if the arena's full of people tomorrow? That'll make it hard to Fast Heal. You wouldn't want to use those powers of yours in front of all those people with the threat of the Black Flame still at large."
Besides my father, Kolni was the only one in the whole Dar'oka Deep who knew I was Phoenix-Born. He'd caught me one night while I'd been Flared Up, and I'd had to explain my whole story and situation. Luckily that was many years ago, and since I wasn't being hunted by the Black Flame right now, he hadn't betrayed me. I knew I could trust him with anything now. It also took a huge weight from my shoulders, knowing that there was at least one person I could turn to.
"No," I agreed as I sat down and Kolni sat down beside me. "But if the arena is full, then obviously all my powers are prohibited. I can't risk anyone finding out about me. That would ruin-"
"Everything your sister did for you," Kolni finished.
I nodded, looking at my shoes. "Yes… I'll just have to rely on my other abilities. Besides, it's not like I'll be able to use those powers once I leave anyway."
I looked back up at him and noticed Kolni's head was bowed, his face contorted in sorrow and what looked like… pain?
"Kolni," I said, placing a hand on his shoulder, "What's wrong?"
Shaking his head, he said hoarsely, "Nothing." He stood up and began walking away. I stared after him in confusion. This wasn't like him. He was usually so bright and full of life. Seeing him this way… I didn't like it. I worried for him. But I knew that no good would come from making him talk to me. He would talk when he was ready.
I got back to my feet and decided to train a little more to clear my head before retiring.