Here is the next chapter.

Hope you enjoy.

Two years later

Two years. The time had passed so quickly. It had been two years since the beginning of the purge and a little less since Magnus left.

I stand here staring out the window and looking over the hills. There is a cloth in my hand and I am cleaning something over a basin of water but I have forgotten what it was. The cloth hangs limply from my grasp and my other hand moves across the surface of the warm water, slowly cooling.

A wind blows through the trees that I see out of my window. What would it feel like to have it run through my hair? To have it lift it up and wave it softly, to have my hair be wild and out of control? The grass ripples under the force of the wind. It is so green this time of year. Healthy.

Figures move across the hills that I see. Their dark shapes look odd against the bright colours of nature. They are walking on the path that leads to our town. Probably coming from Ealdore, which is not too far from here. Friends, perhaps, of someone living here.

Our town doesn't get many visitors these days. We have dwindled in numbers. Many people have left and moved somewhere else. The sight of the empty chair next to them at the dinner table is too painful for them. There isn't one person here who can say they haven't lost someone. If you didn't know the truth you would think a war was going on and that was why so many people were never coming home. In some ways that was true. It just isn't the kind of war you're thinking of.

We are loosing. Some would say we are fighting on the wrong side. I do admit that we are the loosing side but I would never say that it was wrong. If I had to do it all again I would still be standing here staring out the window thinking of the same things and washing something I can't remember.

So many have gone. Why haven't I? Then the sound of feet padding above my head reminds me of my purpose. If it weren't for her I would have given up by now and gone back home to my family. She has kept me strong through these hard times. I can always count on her sweet smile to lift my spirits. She made me care.

A leaf floats through the air and hits the window, sticking there for a moment before the wind pushes it away again. No one who comes here ever stays long. They visit. They say hello. They give their condolences and then they are gone with the wind, like nomads.

But I don't want their pity. They think a few of their carefully chosen words will make everything better but it does nothing for my mourning heart. I still feel the pain of watching them go. The sting the soldiers caused when they dragged them away.

They were the ones I couldn't save. Friends I would never see again. Hearts have hardened. We do not hate magic because it is evil. No. We hate it because of the sorrow it has caused us. The grief we feel when we walk through the empty streets, which used to be packed with people. There used to be strangers here but now I know the names of everyone who walks by me.

I know them all now and I miss the times when I didn't. I don't want to be close with the people who live on the other side of town. I want to wonder who they are and what they're like from afar but I can't do that. I can't wonder anymore. Don't you miss the times when you could ask your friend who that was? I can't do that anymore because there are no new people and that friend I used to ask is gone.

The Black Feather Organization has spread though. Since so many of our members have left, wherever they have gone they have recruited and continued our work. Only a few have remained.

I told them that Magnus had left to find help. We had to decide on a new leader to stand in his place. We went without one until a few weeks ago when I put Holt's name forward. Everyone agreed immediately. He had been the most devoted out of all of us, always coming up with new ideas and strategies. He had in a way already been our leader after Magnus left. Now it was official.

Originally they had asked me to take the post because I had been Magnus' first mate, if you will. But I declined. I didn't tell anyone about Aida or the truth of what had happened. After Magnus left I decided that that was enough for me. I had a sorcerer living under my roof and she was the one I needed to think about the most and protect.

That didn't stop Holt from coming to me for advice once in a while. He used to come all the time but he has built up experience now so he comes less, but he still comes. He comes when he needs a favor. A favor he can only trust me with. What was it about me that made people trust me?

Holt had trusted me with renaming him. Originally he had been Tail Feather but he wanted to change it now that he was officially leader. It didn't take me long to come up with something.

"Crow." I told him the next day. "We'll call you Crow."

He smiled at the name, accepting it. He was fourteen when Magnus left and immature. I had liked that about him. He reminded me that we could still act childish in this time of darkness.

But that had been two years ago. He didn't smile like that anymore. This plague of a law has forced him to grow up and take responsibility. I miss the old Holt. He made me laugh once when I went over to his house to see his mother. I didn't find her but I did find a young Holt trying on his mother's dress. Now that was a sight to lift the heart.

I can't imagine Holt doing anything like that now. Though once in a while he would still tell some of his old jokes. Within a few seconds we would be on the ground clutching our stomachs, bursting with laughter. He never told any new jokes though, only the old ones. Maybe that was his way of holding onto the past.

No one knows what's going to happen. No one knows when this purge will end, or if it will end. Does Uther plan to keep going until he has destroyed his entire kingdom? In some ways he has already destroyed us.

I feel dead inside and the sight outside the window no longer pulls me to it. I can no longer imagine myself running through the hills smiling and laughing. There was no one for me to run and laugh with anyway. Not anymore.

I try to remember the times when I dreamed of my bright future. I can't see it anymore, my dream. What did I want to do with my life again? Whatever it had been was lost now. The future was limited.

Uther used to be a good king who looked out for his people and tried to protect them, all of them. Now he sits on his thrown and passes laws that make us lock up extra tight at night. Does he see what he has become, what he has done to us? I try to understand the grief that pushed him into this decision, but no matter how much I try I don't understand and I never will.

What will it be like years from now when no one remembers why he is doing this anymore? Fear will be pounded into their hearts, fear of the magic that once protected them, and they won't remember why. If I asked them why they hated magic so much their answer would only be that it was evil, but why?

The water is cold now and there is no hope of washing whatever has sunk to the bottom of the basin. My hand still floats across the top, as I am lost in thought. The sun is going down in the sky. The travelers who had made their way over the hills were now sitting at a table somewhere eating their dinner.

Everyday I wonder what the next will bring. I wonder about the future and what it holds for us, the ones who break the law. When we first start out we don't think about the outcomes. We don't think about how long we will have to play this charade. Aida has been living in my attic for pretty much two years now. How long will she have to live up there?

She doesn't always stay up there. Sometimes we risk it and go outside. I keep telling myself that soon the soldiers will forget all about her and she won't have to stay up there anymore. But I am afraid, afraid that they haven't forgotten and they are still looking for her. I am taking a risk letting her live in my attic but I won't take that risk. I worry. I worry like a mother does for her child.

When I first joined the Black Feather I never imagined this, but I can't imagine not knowing Aida now. I have grown attached to the young girl. She's fifteen now and is going into the rebellious stage of her life, the one I still seem to be in. I am surprised she hasn't snuck out of the house yet. Or maybe she is so good now that I don't even notice when she leaves and she comes back before I go in to check on her.

So much has happened over these past two years and I can't recount it all. I hear wood scraping against wood and my eyes finally snap away from the glass. I put the cloth down and turn around, knowing whom I will find.

She smiles up at me. She's tall but I'm taller. Then her smile stops when she sees the tub of now cold water behind me.

"You did it again." She accuses. "Dreaming of the past isn't going to turn back time."

I was shocked. How could she have known? But this was Aida and not much ever got past her. I lowered my head slightly in shame. I have tried to stop thinking back. I have tried to let it go, but I just can't.

"You keep doing that and the dishes will never get cleaned." She comments.

Dishes. I look back at the water. Sitting at the bottom are a few plates and a cup. So that's what I had been washing.

"Sorry." I apologized. "Well at least they have soaked long enough."

"Well there is no time to finish cleaning them now." She smiles.

"And why is that?" I asked.

"The party of course or have you already forgotten." She scorns.

No I hadn't forgotten about the party. We had been planning it the whole week after all. Aida made sure I didn't forget.

"Come one." Aida wined. "We have to go or we'll be late and that's just rude."

Aida pulled on my arm, dragging me towards the door. I only had just enough time to grab our cloaks before we were out the front door and off to the party.

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