• “That is the legend behind the ending of Estel’s imperial age.” Mr. Lane, my instructor, finished the chapter and closed the torn up history book (titled Legends of Estel) before continuing on his speech, “Can anyone tell me about the ‘Angel of Light’?” The room slept, “Mina!” My attention snapped from the window next to me to his celery colored glasses, “Can you explain?”
    “Wasn’t her name Martel?” I looked throughout the class for confirmation on my comment.
    “Well, yes, but what can you tell me about her?”
    “She was the ruler of Estel during the imperial age.” He gave a disappointed sigh and beckoned me forth.
    “Elaborate on that.” I stood as he said this and inched my way to the front of the classroom. I was less than enthused to stand before everyone and speak. Public speaking was never my favorite activity.
    “Well, to tell her story you have to go back to the Cambrian War. Back to when humans and elves were struggling to be the dominate race. Humans had outstanding technology but the elves preserving the old ways of magic. Naturally a war started. From the moment the first elf was killed the sky turned dark and stayed that way for the entire hundred years the war lasted. The souls of the dead turned into what we all know now as the Darkness. Pure hate and pure evil. Humans closed in their cities and elves went into the remaining forests. The Darkness lived in the land and destroyed everything it came in contact with. This thing grew to have its own conscious. Soon people were banding together under the destruction. The Angels even picked sides. Let’s just say it was bad. In order to get rid of this evil the good Angels created a child that could defeat it. Her name was Martel and she was known as the Angel of Light. She came to rule over Estel as the rightful queen, thus the Imperial Age, but on her nineteenth birthday the Darkness started a war and she was swallowed. The end.” Most of the class had turned their attention to my unique story telling ability.
    “And what about the Ciello Villa?” I bit my lip. Mr. Lane saw this and laughed, “It’s quite alright Mina, you can sit down. I’ll finish this one myself.” I turned to him with a smile of appreciation.
    “In a haste to save her home on the night of the attack Martel used her magic to lift the city of Artua into the sky. That is why she was defeated that night and we all suffer now.” That was the last thing I heard him say before zoning out of the window again.
    Time passed slowly waiting for the history session to let out and everyone felt the warm day dragging away. The last few weeks had been safe from the threats of the Dark army or the Darkness itself. Anxiety filled the air of the town of Alexandria. No one knew when there would be an attack or how many lives would be lost. Everyday was on constant guard. Technological and magical breakthroughs were kept a secret but there were mages and scientists everywhere. In order to keep safe you had to keep from becoming too powerful. Of course there were groups that strove for power because they wanted to defeat the Darkness. These groups lived on the plains of Estel and took on the Dark army daily. Alexandria had the bad luck of housing many of these groups when they started out. That is why the city came to be controlled by the military. I tried to stay neutral to either side because both walked the streets.
    “Mr. Lane?!” A student towards the back of the room ran towards the window. I sat calmly leaning my chair on the back two legs.
    “What is it?” Mr. Lane called out from behind his desk. Suddenly the classes dull whisper turned into a fit of talking and yelling. Everyone was jumping up and looking towards the window. I frowned at this. A plume of smoke was rising from the not so far East. There was a flash and then the BOOM. The building rattled, lights flickered, the chairs and desks moved around the room. The chair I sat in flung backwards taking me with it. My head smacked against the desk behind me. In and out, in and out, in and out my sight faded. The room was spinning. My body felt as if it were floating in open water. I heard people calling my name but I couldn’t answer and their voices were muffled. I held onto reality to the best of my ability until I couldn’t grasp it any longer and I let myself slip away into sleep.
    My eyes fluttered behind their lids. Throbbing was all I could feel. I sat up slowly, opening my eyes and looking about the room for clues on my location. Across from the bed was a closet. In front of that there were clothes strewn across the floor. To my right was the door and to the left was a desk. Atop the desk there were gears and springs and tools. Random parts from random machines constructed in a crude way. There was a book sitting at the edge of the bed. I picked it up. There was no title on the brown leather cover. I flipped open to the first yellowed page. It was the table of contents. I read the names of the chapters to myself. As I finished a smirk brushed itself onto my face.
    “Your awake?” I jumped as the door quickly opened and shut again, “How is your head?” His familiar voice made me smile wider.
    “Sami.” I said with an underlying ‘hello’, “My head is fine, thanks.” He stood in front of the desk inspecting his technological trinkets while I inspected him.
    He was tall (around six feet), skinny and pale. His hair was long and messy like his room. He wore black pants, black shoes and a black jacket. Under his jacket was a white long-sleeved turtle neck. His face was narrow with two amber eyes and a warm, friendly smile. His looks spoke for his personality as well. Sami was often quiet, letting him analyze anything and everything at once. He wasn’t compulsive but once he decided on something he never strayed from his course. He wasn’t the type to let anyone stand in his way either. His only flaw was his unbelievably strong beat-around-the-bush speech. Never did he give you a straight forward answer or explanation. Everything was an implication or suspicion. Another thing that was interesting about Sami was his studies in technology and mythology. He loved to build weapons as much as he loved to read about the fables of Estel, his new favorite being the shrouded mystery of Martel.

    His love of everything Martel started two years ago around the time of his nineteenth birthday. After his parents died in an inconspicious accident Sami suffered a mental break. He would sit for hours telling stories about a time and place that didn’t exist. A time and place where he existed with Martel. Months of not having my best friend led me to hate the legends and folklore. He eventually stopped and came back to normal. The only difference being that he was now obsessed with the story and now at twenty-one he is still searching for the truth.
    “Do you know what happened earlier today?” I scooted towards the edge of the bed and jumped onto my feet, joining him at his desk.
    “I might.” He sat and started adjusting levers on the side of, what looked like, a gun. I glared down at him.
    “Were you involved in what happened earlier today?” He stopped moving and put the gun down.
    “Now do I look like the type of person that would be out blowing things up in the middle of the city?” My jaw dropped as he looked up at me with a smile. I picked up the gun he was just holding and pointed it at the ceiling.
    “I don’t want to know anymore,” I sighed, “What does this thing do?” He plucked it from my hands and put it away into a drawer.
    “That shoots out mana bullets. Which, if aimed at the right material, can cause a giant explosion,” He smirked, stood and put his hand on my shoulder, “but don’t worry! I wasn’t involved in the explosion today.” I cringed as he touched me.
    “I’m best friends with a criminal.” I sat back down on the bed whining.
    “No, really. That blast was from a pub at the center of the market area. An elven mage and a human mage had a bit of a confrontation.” He said this rather matter-of-factly.
    “How do you know?”
    “I was there. I saw it. The aftershock was much worse than the actual magic they used. A lot of wasted energy went into what you felt at the academy. I checked on your parents too...” I folded my hands together and played with my thumbs.
    “You should be more careful going to the market side. That is where most people get arrested and killed.” He sat next to me and brushed a strand of my violet hair behind my ear.
    “I was there listening to the new rumors.” He started, “Apparently there was an oracle and Estel is getting another Angel of Light to protect us.” My eyes went from the wood paneled floor to his. I always sat back and quietly pretended to listen to him talk about the tales. Just for a moment I hoped he wasn’t saying that seriously but indeed he was.
    “What has happened to you Sami?”
    “What do you mean?”
    “I mean... the past two years I’ve sat back and done nothing. You put yourself in these dangerous positions over some made up fairytale. When is it going to end? When you are sentenced to death for trading information with the wrong people?” His hand went to my forearm but I pulled away and went to my feet. I fought the raging rainbow of emotions running through me.
    “Mina, you can’t say you don’t have faith that one day Estel will be free.” He looked up at me with an innocent charm to his face.
    “I don’t find the same answers as you.” Few moments passed in silence before I decided it was a good time to return home.
    “Just have some faith!” He called out after me as I reached the door. I opened it slowly and stopped in the doorway.
    “When is it going to be enough, Sami?” I didn’t turn to look at his face before I ran down the stairs and out of the front door. My pride overshadowed my guilt and kept me from going back.
    The walk from his house to mine was short and chilly. The sun was setting into the western skies. The only people left on the streets were the thieves and gutter rats. Neither of which were good to meet. As I turned the next corner I was knocked to the ground.
    “Excuse me!” I said as I looked up to see who I had run into. It was a girl and as I met her eyes I wished she were one of the neanderthals hiding inside the alleys. I had bumped into one of the richest and most influential people in Alexandria; Eliza Mont’clair. Her mossy green eyes were like the sun and a magnifying glass. I was the bug unlucky enough to be caught underneath. Her skin was lightly tanned, lips were cherry red, cheeks were rosy. A pretty girl but a spoiled one at that. Naturally her parents were supporters of the Darkness as was she. Another thing that was surprising was her infatuation with Sami. She was head over heels for him.
    “You should really watch where you walk.” She nudged me with her shoe like I was trash.
    “I’ll keep that in mind next time. I’m sorry.” I gritted my teeth as I stood and brushed off my uniform skirt.
    “I was just on my way to meet up with dear Sami. He seems quite lonely these days. It is good that I am here to keep him company.” I rolled my eyes and moved past her. As many times as she tried to visit him and make it seem like they were ‘something more’ I knew it wasn’t true. He would never be with a girl like her.
    “Whatever Eliza. Have fun.” I didn’t have to look back to know that she was fuming. I wasn’t reacting the way she wanted me to. She was looking for signs of jealousy and submission, things I were never going to be to her.
    Another stretch of cobblestone and I was looking at my front door. The house seemed docile. Sami had mentioned my family but he didn’t say much so they must have been alright after the blast. He would have told me if they weren’t. I opened the door and stepped inside. The house smelled different for some reason and it was darker than it normally was for the time.
    “Mom?! Dad?! Sis?!” I yelled out into the empty living room. I took off my shoes and placed them in the shoe box by the kitchen table. The plush carpet was soft under my bare feet. I took another step towards the enshrouded living room and pulled my foot back. I had stepped on something cold and wet. I went over to the wall and flipped on the light switch. The lightbulb at the ceiling glowed and dimly lit up the living room. The spot I had stepped in was red, wine perhaps. My eyes followed the red stains to my parents bedroom door. The light in that room was flickering. Hanging just outside the door frame was a hand. An eerie feeling crept up inside of my body and flipped my stomach.
    “Mom?” My voice became hoarse, “Dad?” I croaked out as I moved towards the room. I stood in the doorway staring down at the atrocity that the darkness hid but the light revealed. Three bodies, horribly mutilated on the floor.