Disclaimer: Um… you read the prologue, right? Well, everything you need to know is RIGHT THERE. Oh, and Alanna is my character. I think I first saw the name 'Alanna' in the Wheel of Time series, but I checked in my mom's books of names, and it IS a real name. So technically, I don't have to give credit to anyone. And CAUTION: spoilers if you haven't beaten the game yet! You have been warned…
Author's note – A clarification on the clans (Because that darn Wise One never gives enough information…)
Phoenix Clan: Can use light magic. Light magic is cool because it dispels shadow magic, and does critical damage to Shadow magic-users Some shadow-magic users are even allergic to light magic! The Phoenix Clan has several other… special powers… that I can't go into right now because it would be a massive spoiler.
Dragon Clan: Can use shadow magic, which does critical damage to light magic users. Can travel between worlds, or simply from one space to another, by traveling through the Shadow Realm and using mirrors as portals. (This ability is called Worldgating by the Dragon Clan). Like the Phoenix Clan, they have a few other abilities that I refuse to spell out at the present moment for sake of not giving out spoilers.
Oh, and another note on the Dragon Clan. Their basic governing structure is several Houses that sort of function like their own mini-countries, with a ruling council, and a Master, who's sort of like the ruling lord. (The Master acts as embassy to the other Houses, and has a lot of say in the governing of the House, but can be overridden by the ruling council of the House. I will go into this in more detail in later chapters.)
Thank you for your reviews! I was so worried that when I posted this story that no one was going to like it! Now that I've rambled quite a deal, on with the story.
Chapter 2: Preparations
The merchant Hamet and his wife jerked in surprise as their manor lurched slightly.
"What on earth was that?" Hamet mused. It had felt like it had come from below them… maybe an earthquake?
Another sound; feet running in his direction.
"Lord Hamet! There was an explosion in the western storage area! We're sending a group of guards to investigate now!" reported one of the guards.
"They'd better be on alert," Hamet muttered, color starting to drain from his face. There wasn't anything explosive in the western storage area. So that meant two options. One: there was a thief in the complex, which was unlikely for two reasons. First of all, the chances of a thief sneaking so far into the manor undetected were almost zero. But secondly, no thief would be silly enough to set off such an explosion and alert the manor to his or her presence.
Which left Option Two: there was an unknown enemy Adept in his house. The thought made him want to melt into the floor and disappear. He'd seen his foster child Ivan work his magic; the thought of someone in his home with those same powers and possibly malicious intent made his blood run cold. If the intruder was indeed an Adept, no amount of soldiers was going to be enough.
For the first time in his life, Hamet found himself praying for thieves. He couldn't suppress a dark chuckle at the irony.
"Pull!" Laurel shouted in a voice like ice. Targets flew up into air. Targets were torn to pieces by a flurry of icy blades. Rose yelped, and scurried through the knee-deep snow do avoid the falling debris.
A head poked out of one of the third story windows in the old Victorian house.
"Laurel, you've been at it for three hours, and it's freezing cold outside! You and Rose need to come inside now and warm up!" Heather shouted, clearly vexed. Her normally immaculate black hair was in a sloppy bun, and her usually smart-looking white blouse and pale blue blazer were wrinkled. Laurel figured it was a toss-up as to whether Heather had slept in her clothes, or whether she had simply worked the entire night without sleeping. That would be just like her…
Laurel knew why. It was the same reason she was out here tearing the heck out of blocks of wood and whatever other junk Rose could find to mount on the mini catapult that she and Alanna had rigged up several years ago for exactly the purpose she was using it for now.
It had been a full day, and Alanna still wasn't back.
Oh, she wasn't dead. The House's protective shields were set to collapse in on themselves the moment the Master of the Fourth House died, an ancient failsafe to deter assassination attempts within the House. But she was somewhere, wounded no doubt, (she HAD been fighting Liriel) and clearly unable to get home. And the thought of her twin sister alone in someplace cold and dark made Laurel REALLY want to tear something into tiny, bloody pieces.
If Alanna doesn't come home soon, I'm going to have to masquerade as her! She knows how much I hate that!
Laurel and Alanna looked almost exactly alike. There were differences though. Laurel's features were sharper, her eyes colder, and her hair about a shade darker. Most people described Laurel as 'A woman like a blade made out of ice. Both cold and beautiful, something that will freeze your heart and cut you to pieces if you touch it.'
Laurel liked people thinking of her that way. She didn't want them to try and get close to her.
Laurel also had two tattoos; A white, Chinese-style dragon that twined itself around her right arm from her wrist to her shoulder, and a blood-red briar rose on her left shoulder. How Heather had fumed when she had come back home with those! But she didn't regret it. It helped people to remember that she was more than Alanna's shadow.
"We'd better go inside," Laurel said curtly to Rose. The eleven-year old girl only nodded. She was still withdrawn, blaming herself, no doubt, for what had happened yesterday. Well, it was mostly her fault, anyway. Laurel wasn't going to say a comforting word this time: Rosemary needed to learn to be more careful.
Still, she hated seeing Rose so down. The three of them really depended on Rose to keep their spirits up…
"Don't be so miserable, Rose, Alanna's gotten out of tighter spots before. And don't blame yourself, either. Liriel has tricked many Adepts older and wiser than you, our mother included."
Damn. So much for her resolve…
Rose looked up at her, with tears in her silver eyes.
"Thank you for trying to cheer me up, Laurel," Rose said quietly, choking on the sobs she was holding back. "But I know you're really furious with me. And you should be. This is all my fault…" With that, Rose turned on her heel and rushed inside, curly red-brown hair streaming behind her as she slogged her way through the deep snow, struggling against the biting wind.
"That went well," Laurel muttered, before following. Laurel hoped, briefly, that some of Liriel's goons would try to test the House defenses. She really needed to kill something in the worst way…
Alanna forced her eyes to open. She was lying on a stone floor. Had she fallen asleep in the basement again while referencing something again? There was certainly enough dust in the air. She sneezed and sat up, blinking lazily. Oh, she would definitely be scolded for this, falling asleep standing up…
She blinked. Why was she sitting in the middle of a pile of charred wood that had once been a door? And there were no corridors in her basement…
Oh. Craptastic.
She was still in unknown location, with no way out. And, judging by the state one simple Plasma spell had left her in, she didn't have the strength to stand, so she wasn't even going to bother to try. She could already feel the dull ache of what was going to be a truly monstrous headache. She hadn't overdrawn herself this badly since… well…
Since Christmas Eve… four years ago…
She forced the errant thoughts to the back of her mind, they were not going to help her now. As a mater of fact, nothing really would. So, there was really only one logical thing to do.
Dora was flittering around their newly-completed house, filling bags with travel rations and muttering nervously under her breath. Isaac winced. He knew she didn't want him to be leaving again so soon on yet another dangerous quest. At least she wasn't avoiding him the way she had been before he had left the last time…
"… no directions, none at all! Just like the last time! I… if it weren't an all-powerful floating rock I would pound some sense into it, I would! Disgraceful… no idea when I'll see my son again…"
Sick of listening to his mother's ramblings, Isaac crept out of the house, closing the door quietly. He was more than a bit surprised to see Jenna sitting outside his house, leaning against the house wall just beneath a window, her gaze focused inward and her expression rather unhappy…
"Jenna? What's wrong?" he asked.
"Huh…" Jenna gasped, jumping slightly. "Ah… I didn't know you were there, Isaac. I'm sorry."
"You should really pay more attention to your surroundings," Isaac chided gently. "It's not like you to be so withdrawn. Does this have anything to do with why you're sitting here in front of my house instead of down at your place getting ready with Felix?"
"Um…" she looked away from him, blushing slightly.
"Okay, now I know something's bothering you. Will you tell me what it is, Jenna?"
"Ah… you see, my parents… they don't want me to go."
"What!" Isaac gasped, barely remembering not to shout. "But… how can they do that? You're more than strong enough to take care of yourself…"
"Not according to them…" Jenna muttered darkly.
"…and… and there's just no good reason for them to keep you from going," he finished lamely. He wanted to just come out and say that he didn't want to make this journey without her… but, knowing Jenna, she'd probably just box his ears and berate him for not being more worried about Sheba. Maybe he should talk to Ivan… Ivan always seemed to understand why people were doing things, he was uncannily perceptive. Isaac fervently hoped that perceptiveness extended to women…
"They're worried about both of us going away again. Not surprising, since the last time we left them alone the Wise One turned them into dragons… They're arguing with Felix right now. I didn't want to listen to them go at it. They argue so much lately…"
"Really?" Isaac asked. This was news to him.
"Yes. Mostly about Sheba. Felix wants to marry her, and Mom and Dad are totally against it. They say it's because of her illness, but I think it's because she's not from around here. I think they'd rather have him hook up with someone from Vale and settle down, have some kids… he and Sheba were talking about going off traveling alone before she got sick… This is the first time it's really come to shouting, though…" There were tears welling in her brown eyes. Without thinking, Isaac took her in his arms and held her tight. She stiffened for a moment in shock, then returned his embrace and buried her head in his shoulder, sobbing quietly.
The guards had been expecting just about anything. (And most likely multiple 'anythings' armed with high-powered explosives and big swords.) They had not, however, been expecting to see one lone little girl, no older than seventeen, pale and haggard, wearing tattered, blood-soaked, outlandish clothing carrying nothing but a broken sword with a hilt that seemed to be made out of solid gold and a black leather grip, complete with a strip of leather tied around the hilt, almost as if the thing was most commonly worn as a necklace.
Wide silver eyes stared up at them out of a face that would have been quite beautiful had it not been pale from blood loss and drawn thin by pain and exhaustion.
"I… surrender…" she gasped in a half-whisper before toppling forward to lay in a heap amongst the smoking rubble that had been the door to the storeroom.
