Thank you guys for sticking with me on this one! Here's chapter 2. I know it's a bit shorter than the last one but the next one will be a bit longer so bear with me please!

Chapter 2

Prejudice

Lux

A little spark was sometimes all it took.

"Lady Crownguard"

I looked down at my hands, suppressing the light that was threatening to come through.

"Lady Crownguard"

It would be so easy to lose control. To just let it all out.

"Lady Crownguard!"

I took a deep breath and remembered my exercises. I made the light inside fade.

"Lady Crownguard!"

I spun around. There was a man calling out for me. My head spiraled back to reality as I extinguished the threat of my light to surface. I firmly looked at the man, a mage seeker, wearing the half-mask and demonian blue, and asked him: "What is it, Adept?" and offered a bright smile to hide my concern.

"You and the other radiant one's have been given clearance to enter." said the mage seeker and was clearly pleased as I smiled at him.

"Thank you Adept. We will take it from here and tend to the civilians." I hesitated. I was also told to pass on another order as soon as we had clearance but it pained me a little to give it out. "You and the other Adepts are to spread out and find as many of them as possible. They can't have gone far and some of them might still be hiding nearby. They tend to spread out on their escape and regroup at their headquarters."

Even though I didn't have a rank that allowed me to give out or pass on orders, I was respected enough for my title that people followed what I said. Being born into a prestigious family and being friends with the crown prince himself had its perks. But I wasn't here to tell people what to do, especially when it involved capturing and imprisoning mages. I was here to help the civilians who were injured during the attack and take statements from all the witnesses who were involved in the incident.

A few hours prior, word had arrived in the capital city that there had been an attack near Jandelle. Not an ordinary attack aimed to steal resources or money, but one that was intent on striking damage at the people of Demacia. It was a rebel attack. And while I secretly hoped that one day, Demacians would change their ways and learn to accept mages into their society, I did not agree with the methods of the rebellion. They were causing innocent people to get hurt in their vengeance against the system and say it was a sacrifice for the greater good. I thought, if people had to suffer for the cause then maybe we didn't deserve to achieve the greater good just yet.

Word was passed to the mage seekers and then to the illuminators to head down, evaluate the situation and take action immediately, direct orders from the crown. The Lightshield family was not intent on looking weak in this civil war, even though they refused to call it that. They referred to it with terms that rather incriminated the rebels. Terrorist attacks. The people at the top were afraid that the terms "civil war" or "revolution" might get people to join the rebel forces so they played it down and made it look like the rebels didn't have a chance anyway. Considering that no one actually knew how large their numbers currently were, no one really knew what the outcome would be.

So here I was, tending to the wounded civilians who had been involved in the attack. Fortunately, no one was confirmed dead yet, but the rebels had taken a few hostages and no one had received any sort of ransom letter. We could only pray for their wellbeing, although, regrettably, the rebellion has been known to have already taken hostages before only to kill them when they didn't have any use for them.

There were about twenty-five people who needed immediate treatment and the order only sent four of us. Kahuna's presence put my mind at ease a little and I managed to maintain my known positivity. The wounded needed some optimism and right now, I was the one who could provide it to them. While Kahina and I got to work immediately, the other two radiants hurried to put up a tent in which we could work in a more sterile environment, at least for the time being.

I knelt down next to a man who looked like both his legs had been struck by lightning. One would find that an odd injury, given that only his legs had been hit but I had already seen something similar and I was sure that the rebellion had a mage on their side who could fire lightning at their command. That mage didn't seem to be all too trained yet, he had only struck a small portion of the man's body and there would be scars, but he would be back on his feet soon enough.

I asked the man what he had seen as I began to treat the injury.

"It all happened so fast. They stormed in and used their... their... affliction to hurt us! They were trying to kill us all, I'm tellin' ya!"

I tried to calm the man down a little. „Take it easy. Try to remember what they looked like. What they could do with their afflictions. Was there anything exceptionally notable you saw? Anything at all?" I asked, trying to get some straight answers.

"Apart from the fact that there were god darn afflicted attacking the town?" he snapped, clearly still enraged. I dropped my smile and sighted, and the man's face suddenly shifted as he realized that I was only trying to help. "Well, if the information is any use to ya, Miss, I saw Sylas of Dregbourne with them. He's their leader, right?"

That information was indeed useful to me. If Sylas was with them, then this wasn't some aimless attack conducted by a separate group that sympathized with the rebels and wanted to support the cause. It meant that this attack was initiated by Sylas himself and that it had a certain purpose. So naturally, I was asking myself what that purpose could have been. Did they achieve it? Maybe they just wanted to see how close to the capital they could strike and still get away with it. Were they testing the limits? There was no doubt that they were planning to overthrow the system but we didn't know in what way they would try to work towards that goal.

"Thank you, that information is very valuable" I assured him and he seemed pleased that he could be of assistance. "Happy to help." he said "I just want my people to be safe from these abominations."

I flinched at that. Of course, the man didn't know I was afflicted as well and I did my best to hide it from the world, but it still hurt to be called an abomination.

"I understand" I told him and shot a radiant smile at him, even though I didn't feel like smiling anymore. I had to maintain posture. I couldn't let my secret get the better of me.

I finished up the treatment and the man's son helped him move a few feet so I could tend to the next patient.

Hours passed and as the sun began to set, we had treated all the injured and gathered as much information as possible. We hadn't heard back from the mage seekers and I hoped that they had caught none of the escapees. As much as I resented them for hurting innocent people, I did not wish it upon them to endure what most imprisoned mages had to. All I could think of were the words that Sylas had spoken to me when we met in his cell. The conditions he had to endure since he was just a boy. He was not even of age when they had imprisoned him deep down in the catacombs with petricite shackles so heavy that he could barely even move at first.

The towns people were returning to their homes, thanking us for our generous help. The illuminators were known to be very charitable in situations such as this current one. I was collecting my tools when all of the sudden, a swift movement caught my eye. I spun around, expecting one of the children to be playing around and having to tell them off. I had already put on a friendly smile when I noticed there was no child, well, not exactly, but instead a girl, who had dark hair and was barely older than myself. She had a wild look on her face and was focused solely on me. It was when I saw the little sparks falling from her palms that I noticed that the girl was afflicted. Not only that, she was the lightning mage that I had suspected to be with the rebels. She must have been hiding nearby the whole time. With the mage seekers searching outside the town, she didn't have a chance to escape yet so she must have just waited around until the coast was clear. But why would she reveal herself now? Was she trying to turn herself in? Did she feel bad for what she did?

When I wanted to tell her to go back to hide, she promptly cut me off, anger present in her voice as she spat at me. "You're Luxanna Crownguard."

I only nodded, very careful to not scare her so she'd panic and do anything that could reveal herself.

"You're the very definition of privilege. The rebellion despises people like you!" she yelled and before I could react, she had already shot a bolt of lightning towards me. I darted to the side but I felt a sharp pain in my shoulder. She had hit me with her lightning and I was quite literally shocked. Kahina had noticed and rushed to my aid. "Lux, are you alright?" he asked and I could only grit my teeth in response. To be hit by a lightning spell was expectantly and incredibly painful.

"I'll make it, don't worry" I assured Kahina. The other two radiants had noticed as well and one ran after the girl who had dashed away as soon as Kahina had come in our direction and the other rushed into the nearby woods, probably intent on alerting the nearest mage seeker.

"We should have never allowed this to happen" Kahina said angrily but I put a hand on his arm to calm him. "She was just panicking. I'm sure she didn't mean to hurt me." I lied but Kahina wouldn't have any of it. "Don't defend her, Lux. She said she knew exactly who you were and she tried to kill you for that."

I wasn't sure if the girl was really trying to kill me in the name of the rebellion but I couldn't imagine that Sylas would order her or in fact anyone to do so in general. If he wanted me dead, he wouldn't have spared me at the day of his supposed execution. This incident must have happened on the girl's own initiative, thinking that she was doing what was right for their cause. „We should treat your wound and get you home" Kahina said and I didn't object. I wanted to stay and help the girl, even if she did attack me, she was still like me. But I knew to be rational and that I shouldn't risk exposure on me and disgrace on the order. Without a word, I let Kahina help me mount my horse and as swiftly as possible we made our way to High Silvermere.

"This is entirely ridiculous!" I protested as I watched my brother, Garen Crownguard, pace up and down inside my room. "Not to mention completely unnecessary!"

"It wasn't a question, Lux. I have already spoken to father and aunt Tianna about this and I'm afraid you have no choice in the matter." Garen answered and his firm voice told me, that there was nothing I could do about it.

I didn't care and tried anyway. "I don't need a babysitter. I can take care of myself!" I protested.

"I can see that", he said sarcastically, pointing to my injured shoulder.

"Come on. It's bad enough that mother and father have to be so protective of me. You of all people should know that I can defend myself."

"Lux, this is not about being able to protect yourself. Considering your fellow radiants report on the matter, these terrorists have clearly made an assassination attempt on you. This is for your own safety." he argued.

I let out an exaggerated sigh "How often do I have to say this? The girl was panicking. There is no proof that this was a planned assassination attempt."

"And yet, the exact words of the assassin were: 'you're Luxanna Crownguard, the rebellion despises people like you'"

I knew that the argument was lost either way. I grunted in defeat as I, like so many times before, had to just accept the choices my family had made for me.

"As my brother, aren't you supposed to be on my side?" I asked, rather rhetorically. I already knew what his answer would be.

"As your brother, I'm more concerned for your safety than I am for your comfort."

Of course. How predictable. This was so frustrating I could scream. Instead I just asked Garen to leave. He did and I fell into my bed, clutching the pillow to my chest. Why couldn't they just trust that I could defend myself against a non-existent threat? I wasn't a little girl anymore.

Of course I felt like this also was about something entirely else. I was 95% positive that they thought that if I was put under enough pressure or into a situation in which I was threatened enough to panic I would accidentally use my powers again and reveal my affliction. If only they would understand that I had my powers under control now. I wasn't in any way trained to use them like many of the mages who joined the rebellion learned to, but I could hide the light well enough and I was able to conceal it during even the riskiest situations.

I knew I couldn't tell my family that the currently most wanted criminal in the entire country was the one who had helped me achieve this, and it was so frustrating to just watch them make decisions even though they didn't really know the whole truth. There was no threat, neither of "another" assassination attempt nor of me risking exposure. I felt so helpless and frustrated at the fact that I was unable to confine in anyone, not even the people I was supposed to feel closest to.