The morning after the solsistice was painted with strecks of deep reds, shimmering golds, and vibrant oranges. Lyyra had indeed been pleased with the festival held in her honor. Rorek groaned as he rolled out of bed and began to dress; his grandmother had instructed him to rise early to practice his spellwork. He laced his boots up and headed for the outter grounds, he was still rubbing sleep out of his eyes as he walked through the corridors of Aguria castle he knew by heart. He reached the twin oak doors that lead outside to the grassy knoll that was the Mageknights training area, the door squealed in protest as he pushed it open than closed it behind himself. The grass was springy and light underfoot as he walked over to the line of straw dummys, the crisp morning brezze was lazyly playing with a nearby hawthorne tree, making the shadows cast by its wide boughs dance across the ground. It reminded Rorek of the way Devlyn and Aschlyn danced wildly throught the masses the very night before. Rorek shook his head trying to send Devlyn's handsome face from his thoughts...failing miserably he sighed in a defeated way and let a smile surface on his lips. He pushed his brown hair back and looked across the expanse of land to the dummy's, he would start with his favorite element...Fire. He closed his eyes and felt the warmth of the sun on his skin...the sun; the biggest source of fire magic. The daytime was the prime time to pratice fire and earth, while the night was for water, ice, and air. His grandmothers words rang in his mind, he raised a hand and tapped into his inborn magic. He felt the heat gather in his hand and he opened his hazel eyes just as flames burst into life in his palm. Rorek smiled and began to face his hand to the dummys, he needed to realse the spell soon before it ate up too much energy and he couldn't control it. But as fate would have it Devlyn and Aschlyn had dicided to get in some early morning magic work as well, and threw the doors open with a crash; Rorek took one look at who it was and freaked. He would have been fine in most cases, but the sound of the doors plus the added fact that it was Devlyn caused his heart to race and spike out his magic to the spell he was working. The effect was violent and loud, the tongue of flame in his hand sizzled and crackled, tripled in size and exploded. Rorek nearly fainted as he looked at his hand, it was bloody, burned and the bones had actually shattered from the shockwave. He groaned and dropped to his knees clutching his torn hand...he tried to gather his mind to force out a healing spell but all he could think about was Devlyn and the snort of laughter that he let out. Aschlyn turned and smacked her brother in the back of the head saying

"Devlyn you pig, thats not funny" She rushed over to Rorek and knelt down beside him tucking her shinny black tresses behind her ears " Here let me see it" Rorek's breath caught in his throat and he slowly extended the wounded hand praying he didn't drip blood on he dress. She cupped her hands around it and closed her eyes, a brilliant white light flitered out from the crevices of her hands as a wave a euphoria washed over Rorek. She took her hands away his own was wounded no more, there was no trace of anything; she smiled and said

" Does it feel better?" Rorek made a strange sound than cleared his throat and lowered his head speaking to the grass

"Yes my princess, you are too kind to a lowly servant" Aschlyn shook her head and said

" But aren't you to be in the Mageknights soon? That is no lowly place um..Rorek..i believe?" His eyes widened and he catiously raised his head almost puzzeled at how she knew his name. She saw the confusion in his eyes and answered the silent question " Your mother was my priviate guard as a child...before she...passed" Rorek had almost forgotten that, yes his mother had been on of the greatest knights to the family she had saved the entire royal caravan from a horde of bandits once. But a sickness had taken her strength and soon she could hardly keep after young Aschlyn, and soon after that she was gone. The memory still cut Rorek deep and he said

" I am sorry my lord and lady but i must go, you need not another here to bother you while you train." He rose to his feet coming face to face with Devlyn, his heart was pounding in his throat as he looked into his deep chocolate eyes that were flashing with mirth. " So what were you planning doing with that spell there..something like this? " Devlyn flung his hand foward as a ball of fire shot dangerously close to Rorek's head and struck a dummy bursting into flames. " Or do you like blowing holes in you hand?"

Rorek was hurt by the edge in his voice, but angered by the latent challenge that Devlyn just presented him with. He knew he shouldn't have but his tongue had a mind of its own at times and he said with a hint of venom"No something more advanced like this" He swung his head around and squinted his eyes, small tongues of flame actually danced in his pupils as his rage fueled the spell, all of the dummy's exploded into rippling flame. Devlyn looked alittle soured but recovered quickly sucking in a large breath he turned to flamming dummy's and exhaled. The breath came out as a cloud of tinted blue and white causing the flames to extingush and cover them with jagged spires of ice. He looked over to Rorek with a smug looked splayed across his handsome features

" Something wrong, Sparky?" Aschlyn shook her head saying "Men" and raised her eyes to the sky, as they quickly turned pure white. Dark storm clouds gathered and there was a shower of lightning that reduced the dummys and the earth beneath them to rubble with a resounding crack that echoed everywhere, causing the Devlyn and Rorek to cringe backwards. " Training is over now Devlyn, lets go...mother expects us on time for breakfast for once. It was good to see you again Rorek, im sure you'll get into the knights soon." Devlyn looked back at Rorek as Aschlyn dragged him and away and said laughing " Try not to blow up anymore body parts Sparky, you going to have enough trouble getting into the knights as a whole person." Aschlyn smacked him again and shoved him throught the door cursing and yelling at her twin. Rorek cursed his luck growled gutterly stamping his foot, a tremor ripped the ground before him in two.

End Chapter 2