Chapter 2: Jade

            The dark hallway wavered and finally dissolved into a cheery, sunlit landscape as Jade concluded the translocation spell.  However, the beautiful, song-filled forest did little for the young woman's mood.  'So, that woman has finally deigned to give me my final test,' the young sorceress thought derisively, refusing to acknowledge her biological relationship to the queen of Lethe.  'I'm sure she's doing this to see if I am ready to be pronounced as her heir…now I have to figure out just what I am going to do about all this.  Am I going to allow her to pronounce me Heir to Darkness or not?'  Jade sighed heavily and sat down on a nearby fallen log, the piece of paper in her hand forgotten.  'I wish Mother were here…she would know what to do…'

* * *

            The room was fresh and well lit, a marked change from the rest of the Commons.  "Zialyn," Adriane began, remaining standing, "I thought you had been asked to change the atmosphere of your room."

            "I had," Zialyn Alanis replied softly from her seat on her bed.

            "Then why is your room unchanged?"

            "I had been asked, just as you said, sister.  A request is not an order, no matter what you may think.  I will not change my room—I like it the way it is."  Her reply was without malice, yet there was an undertone of defiance to her words.

            The queen sighed.  "Zia," she said, trying a different tack and using her youngest sister's short name, "I had hoped that after we had cleansed you, you would be free."

            Zialyn stood and looked her sister directly in the eye, her greater height more than making up for the thirty-year difference in their ages.  "Your idea of cleansing, Adriane, is no more than a mockery of the word itself.  What you do is damaging, not cleansing, and you and I both know that you know this to be true."  She sighed sadly.  "You and I also both know that we are different, and we will never agree on what is right for us.  However, I will not bow down to you any longer—especially not after what you have done to me."

            Adriane raised an eyebrow.  "Oh?  And what might I have done to you to cause you to hold malice toward me?"

            Zialyn shook her head.  "That will no longer work on me, Adriane.  You know full well what you have done—killing my husband is no method to regain what you had lost: my submission."

            The queen of Lethe's eyes widened and her mouth hung open in shock.  "You—you were married to that Kar man?"

            "Kerr," Zialyn corrected her softly.

            Her elder sister was too incensed to notice her gentle reprimand.  "You—you have disgraced this house by your foul deeds!  You are to leave immediately!  Get out, now!"

            Zialyn shook her head sadly.  "This is just like you, Adriane—you truly will never change."

            Adriane refused to respond and vanished from the room with a loud clap of thunder and bright flash of light.

            "Mother?" eight-year-old Jade called out from the shadows, from where she had watched the entire scene.  "Why did Aunt Adriane do that?"

            Zialyn knelt down to look at her daughter on an equal level.  "Whatever happens to us now, Jade Nell Alanis, remember this for all time: your Aunt is a dangerous woman.  Never trust her."

            Jade nodded solemnly, unfazed by her mother's changing of the subject.  "I promise, Mother."

            "Good."  Zialyn stood.  "Gather your things—we are leaving."

            "Yes, Mother."

            Less than half an hour later everything the pair owned was packed, all items fitting into one suitcase through a compression enchantment.  Taking the suitcase in one hand and her daughter's hand in the other, Zialyn silently cast the translocation spell that would take them outside of the Lethe compound and into the outside world.  The normal waver and dissolve occurred, but rather than ending up outside they found themselves in a huge, dark room.

            "What is this place, Mother?" Jade asked, no fear creeping into her voice—only a note of wary curiosity.

            'I have trained her well,' Zialyn thought proudly.  But the sense of pride was fleeting, for she then had to respond to her daughter's question.  "I do not know, my dear—be on your guard."

            "Yes, Mother."

            "You wish to know what this place is, do you?" Adriane's voice cracked down to them from her sudden appearance in the air ten feet above their heads.

            "What do you want, woman?" Zialyn hissed, realizing what her elder sister had done.

            "Simple—your daughter is not going with you. 

            "And why is that?"

            "She is the Heir to Darkness—or she will be in the future."

            Zialyn's eyes narrowed.  "I do not think so.  She is coming with me."

            "No.  You will leave.  She will stay—she belongs to the Shadow now."

            "No," Zialyn said, taking her daughter's hand in her own.  Silently she cast Protect on them…but for some reason nothing happened.  Unconsciously she let go of Jade's hand, so great was her surprise.  'What is this place?'

            "No?"  The queen of Lethe snorted and pretended not to notice the younger sorceress' attempt at magic.  "You have much backbone for one in a position such as yours.  Like I said, you will leave."

            "I think not, Adriane."

            "Really now?" she replied with a raised eyebrow.  "So much for your thought, little sister...I will send you on your way now."

            The hair on the back of Zialyn's neck stood on end at the ominous undertone in Adriane's voice.  "NO!" she cried, reaching for her daughter.  But she was too late.  Jade vanished, reappearing in Adriane's arms a second later, her eyes oddly glazed over and boring directly into her mother's soul.  That expression pained her many times more than the thunderbolt arcing out of the sky into her heart ever could have, had she felt it.

            Only after the flash of light had faded did Zialyn glance down and spot the burning, black hole in her chest where her heart used to be.  She felt no pain, as her entire body was numb from the blast. 

            As blackness began to slide over her vision, she cast an insensible spell toward her daughter and said silently, "Remember…what…I…told…you…about… your…aunt…oh, Jade…be…very…careful…for me…and…for…your… father…"  Then the blackness overcame her, and she slipped away into nothingness.

            Adriane laughed harshly.  "She deserved what came to her."  Glancing down at the spell-bound girl in her arms, she said, "I have great plans for you, young one."  Laughing again, she vanished from the Room of Punishment, unaware of the rebellion sparked in her niece's heart by her mother's last words.

* * *

            "Oh, why am I still here, affiliated with this accursed place and learning the arts of black magic?" Jade cried out to the world, her heart rent yet again by the pain of watching her mother die at the hands of her own sister.  The thought of what she should do now was now far off in a distant corner of her mind, driven away by the distressing memory.  "Am I an idiot for remaining with those evil women thus far?  What am I doing?  Someone, tell me!"

            'Light…'

            The young woman froze at the sound of the unknown voice.  "Who's there?"

            'Use light…'

            "What?"  'Wait…am I truly hearing the voice or is it just in my mind?'

            'Keep light…in your heart…'

            "What are you talking about?  What light?" she demanded.

            But the odd voice did not answer.

            "Well, that was weird," Jade commented mildly, unaware of the fact that the voice had managed to make her forget about her recent angst.  "Oh, well, nothing I can do about it now.  Time to get a move on and figure out why this Matthew Leonhart person has those women so nervous."

            Standing with a renewed resolve, Jade cast a spell to call a rodoral to her.  About two minutes later a great flapping of leathery wings was heard, and a giant bird-like creature settled down on the ground next to her.  With a gentle pat on the rodoral's neck, she mounted the creature and asked it to fly to Esthar, on the continent of Trabia, where she hoped to find information on this Matthew Leonhart's whereabouts.

            Only then did she glance down to look at the paper in her hand.  Jade's eyes widened when she opened the single sheet and found the face of a young man looking at her.  'This must be him…I guess Adriane didn't trust me to find him completely on my own…Dang, but that boy is good-looking.'  She shook her head, trying to snap herself out of it.  'Get a grip, girl—you have a mission here.'

            'So?' a little voice in her mind said.  'I thought you didn't like those people.  And now you're going to bring this cute guy into their clutches?'

            'I don't know what I'm going to do!' she wailed silently.

            'You might want to figure that out sometime soon.'

            'But my first objective is simply to find out more about him.  I have some time, you know.'

            'And then you have to find him and "gain his trust."  What then?'

            Jade had no answer to that, and spent the flight to Esthar deep in thought, her brow creased and eyes narrowed.