The Strong and the Weak: The Quest for Power

They were descendants of a long, royal elf line named De'Loc. With their possession of great healing magic they were world famous, known to travel and help towns in trouble. In their family tree it had always been the same: Clerics, Priests, Elemental Masters, and even Saints. When they come traveling into your town, you'll know right away from their pure silver-blue hair.

Eerie and Cayena had lived happily with their family in Alker Harbor all their life, while getting letters from their uncles about their adventures. Both Eerie and Cayena would make up stories about what they would do when they grew up, about what parts of the world they'd travel to and who they would help.

A few weeks ago, their uncles letters started changing. They were filled by fear, and talking about some clan which Cayena and Eerie never heard of, and their parents wouldn't explain about. Cayena noticed their parents' attitude had changed, she saw them looking out the window and frowning, and all the letters that came afterward were hidden. Eerie, naive as always, kept telling her not to worry, but she knew better.

One morning, Cayena decided she had to talk to her mother. Worried and concerned, she asked, "Mother, isn't it about time you told me what's going on?"

Her mother tried her best to smile warmly, but Cayena could tell that her mother was worried. "It's nothing my dear," she said. Cayena wanted to argue, but her mother wrapped gentle arms around her and whispered softly into her ear, "No matter what happens in the future, don't forget who you are and what your destiny is." Just then Cayena's little brother walked in with a basket of fresh fruit. Mother let go of Cayena and took the basket, then walked into the kitchen saying what a wonderful pie she could make.

"Big sister, you worry too much. It's probably just another clan that needs help, and they're just worried that they won't be able to help them. Mother always tries to shelter us from the quests that our uncles might fail."

Cayena sighed to herself, and she decided to try to believe her baby brother. But it was like the restless wind kept telling her tales, and she couldn't sleep well at night.

And one morning, her nightmares came true.

She loved to go swimming in the lake right behind town. The ocean made her hair go frizzy, but the lake felt as if she was one with it. One morning as she was walking home, drying her hair with a towel, her brother came running around the corner, crying and screaming her name. Right then she had a sinking feeling. Eerie clung to her shirt, and cried out their parents' names.

Desperately Cayena grabbed his hands, freed her shirt, and started running faster than she ever had before. Around the corner, through the market and up the street, then she saw a group of men around her house. Everything seemed to go into slow motion. She saw some men putting cuffs on her mother, and her father was nowhere to be seen. Other men lit a torch and threw it into the house, making it burst into flames.

She wanted to cry and scream at them, to tell them to let go of her mother, but before she could, someone grabbed her from behind, held a hand tightly over her mouth, and pulled her behind a tree.

"Cayena, this is one moment in your life where you have to be absolutely calm and think. I know you're hurting, but going over there right now will just give your mother more sorrow. At least this way she knows you're safe." The man was Farouk, one of the few humans she knew who could perform excellent magic.

The strange men soon left, and both Cayena and Eerie found themselves sitting in Farouk's workshop, sipping tea in silence.

"Why... why didn't you stop them, Farouk?"

He smiled sadly in answer, warm and caring as he had been his whole life. "Well... It's true I possess magic, but compared to what they had out there, I'm nothing but a small fry. With a lesser number I could taken them out, but they were just too many." Cayena bit her tongue, she wanted someone to blame, but knew that blaming the man who had just saved her life would be wrong.

Cayena asked, "Who were they?"

Farouk explained that they belonged to a vicious clan who only sought power, nothing else, and that they were feared far and wide because they forced powerful healers to aid them in battle. If the healers refused, they were either killed, or their children were threatened with death. Farouk said that no one knew where they were from, or who their leader was, but their presence had been known for some months now.

"It's sad, they're slowly invading the Blue Land, but I'm sure someone will fight them," he finished.

Cayena fiercely stood up and slammed her hand down on the table.

"Someone!? SOMEONE!? You're saying that you don't even KNOW if there are people fighting these vicious creatures!"

Eerie looked up at his sister, startled, as Farouk placed his warm hands over Cayena's.

"They come in crowds, with their healers by their side. There are people who want to fight, but they're weak and outnumbered. So they're training and gathering followers."

A few tears fell down her cheek as he went on, "Your parents knew they were coming, they just didn't know when. I was instructed to take care of you after they were gone."

Cayena couldn't believe that her parents hadn't told her, she didn't want to believe that her parents hadn't put up a fight. Suddenly she knew what she had to do, and she took a deep breath.

"Farouk, give me a wand." Her eyes were emotionless but determined as she stared at the man. For the first time in all the years Cayena had known him, she saw a deep sadness in the eyes of the cheerful mage.

"What? Big sister, what are you thinking?" Eerie looked confusedly at the two others, but he was ignored.

"Are you sure you want to go down that path?" Farouk's worried look got worse, but Cayena didn't even blink.

"Yes."

"If you're not careful, it may swallow you whole."

"Because my parents didn't have any destructive powers, they were taken. I will get them back."

Eerie stood up. "Cayena, you can't do this. Our parents wouldn't want it."

But all she did was shake her head at him, no one could change her mind now. "I will seek out the power with your help, Farouk, or I will step into the darkness and ask there. I beg you, give me the power to become a sorcerer."

"CAYENA!" Eerie was screaming at the top of his lungs. "You can't leave me alone!"

Her face softened as she looked at him, and she put her hand on his head. "You're too young, Eerie, my sweet little brother, you haven't even awakened your ability to heal a single flower. You're better off staying here and learning from Farouk. Don't you remember how mother always said that we couldn't forget our destiny? I will throw away my ability as a De'Loc, but you must keep our legacy alive. Someday I'll be back."

As much as Farouk didn't want Cayena to embrace destructive power, he knew he couldn't stop her, so he chose to help her. He sighed, stood up, and walked over to a dresser next to his huge bookshelf. Out of it he took a long staff with a blue marble on top of it.

"This will suit you nicely. It belonged to my late wife. She was the most powerful and beautiful elf I've ever seen; it was love at first sight. I wasn't going to use it, but... it should suit you just fine." Cayena looked at the staff curiously, she had never held a real staff before. In her family they channeled all their spells through their bare hands.

"Are you sure, Farouk?" He nodded and gave her the staff. Then he cast a spell which Cayena had never heard before, and with it a light went around her. Then it felt as if she had absorbed the light into her body.

"W-what.." Cayena gasped, a little scared. Her entire body felt alive.

The face of her brother was terrified, he gulped and fell over in a faint.

Farouk took a hand mirror from the dresser and showed Cayena her own reflection. "It's a spell to protect you from evil; white looks good on you after all."

Cayena had to laugh, because her brother had fainted due to a mere change of hair color, from silver-blue to pure white.

Cayena was filled with all kinds of different emotions. She felt anger and hate toward the men who took her parents. She also felt warm and safe, like the spell Farouk had cast on her was some sort of guardian angel. But most of all, she was afraid, of the world out there, and of starting this journey alone.

Determined to find her parents, she left town with a spell book, a staff, and a whole adventure ahead of her.