Chapter 1 #2
Life in the tower turned out to be nothing like home at all.
She didn’t have chores, at least not like she used to, no washing or sweeping.
There were no gardens for her to tend nor eggs to gather.
Yet there was always food to eat and clean clothes to wear.
The tower remained tidy, if not pristine, with little intervention from its occupants.
There was no mystery to it though. It was magic.
Magic, which the red wizard told her had always been a part of her, had now become her whole life.
Every morning as Keira finished her breakfast, Ignatius would set a book down before her, and she would read with his assistance.
Her early hours were spent deciphering words or practicing arthomancy sums. He would have her copy entire pages from old dusty books to improve her penmanship which was, in his words, abysmal.
When he was satisfied with her progress each day, he would disappear upstairs to his study at the top of the tower, not to be seen until dinner presented itself on the table each evening.
Even though when she had come she hadn’t known a single letter, within a year Keira could read by herself.
Then it was a book after breakfast, and she’d be left to pour over the pages alone.
She learned spellcraft and theory as well as history, geography, and all manner of sciences.
Every evening after their meal, Ignatius would sit in his chair by the fire, smoking his pipe, and ask her questions about her studies or to demonstrate whatever magic she had been tasked with that day.
Call the mice to your feet. Grow this sprout into a flower.
Fill this cup with water. Turn this molded bread fresh again.
And though he seemed pleased with her progress and saw to her care in every regard, the wizard still called her girl.
Keira was not even sure that he knew her name.
Every night, loneliness would blossom in her heart as she pictured her family, their faces, how it had felt when they hugged her good night.
She considered how strange it was to feel so dissatisfied when, for the first time in her life, there was always enough food to eat and very nice clothes to wear (always various shades of green).
She was receiving an education greater than anyone in her family ever had, she was sure.
Under her guardian’s teachings, she had learned how to control her natural talents as well as develop her skill in the arcane arts.
Her affinity for the natural world had grown.
She could more than set animals at ease with her presence; she could influence their behaviors.
Her magics could help plants take root, divine the weather, even reshape her own body if she desired.
This was surely the reason they had sent her away, to secure for her the best possible future.
And so, Keira worked as hard as she could so that when she did see them again, they would be proud of her.
Yet a year turned into two, and they had still not written to her since she arrived nor come to see her. Nothing at all.
Her parents would never have given her away if they thought it was forever, not if they’d had a choice.
It was a simple conclusion she had come to on those many nights lying awake.
Keira was beginning to suspect that the red wizard was keeping her from them, burning their letters perhaps.
Or maybe he had forced them somehow to give her up, threatened them in some way. It was the only explanation.
It was three days after her tenth birthday when Ignatius came down the steps wearing his travelling clothes.
Keira looked up from the book she’d been reading, a dense tome on the fundamentals of conjuration, her brows pinched.
He’d just taken her into the village to pick a gift for her birthday (for which she’d chosen a small belt knife with a handsome leather sheath).
It was unlike him to make two trips in so short a time.
“I am going for the day, girl,” he explained brusquely. “Mind your studies. I’ll be back by morning.”
Keira stared up at him. He had never done any such thing. “Okay,” she said.
And he left, no goodbyes or anything of the like. They were a pair of few words.
The moment his black horse disappeared over the hill, Keira pulled together a pack and set off down the road in the opposite direction towards home.
She had studied maps of the lands bordering the Firewoods with the very intention of using them if the opportunity came to her.
Of course, she had not known how to find her family’s farm on a map even when she had lived there, but she knew the area from having walked it and made a hearty estimate.
Hopefully, she thought, when she got closer, she would recognize something that would lead her the rest of the way.
After many hours of walking over country roads, through rolling hills and grain fields, Keira reached a small town.
She asked the merchants there about her parents, but they had not heard of them.
Since she was a child with no money, she could not hope to buy a room for the night.
Still she held no objection to sleeping outdoors.
Keira found a pleasant spot to rest just as the sun began to set in earnest. She would continue north at first light.
Ignatius would likely not realize she was gone until he returned, but she wanted to put as much distance between them as possible.
With the aid of his magics, it would be all too easy for him to find her once he knew she was gone.
Yet it seemed for all her caution, she had underestimated her guardian.
No sooner had she laid down her head than she was surrounded by a ring of fire.
Keira knew at once that this meant Ignatius had found her.
There would be no escaping him tonight. Still, she stood tall and defiant as he emerged from the flames.
“You foolish girl,” he growled.
Keira was almost taken aback as he had never raised his voice to her before, but she was far too stubborn to let that sway her now.
“I want to go home!” As her skin heated with anger, black thorns began to sprout from her clenched fists, trailing up her arms all the way to her shoulders, and with it a sense of satisfaction, of power.
Ignatius’s eyes narrowed at her display. “You’ve just left your home behind.”
“That’s not my home!” she raged. “I want my parents!”
“You can’t go back there,” Ignatius said stiffly.
“Only because you won’t let me!” Keira’s eyes filled with hot angry tears as he just stood there, even faced beneath his untamed brows.
“Your parents don’t want you back,” the wizard said calmly. “They summoned me, bid me to take you in. Your magic frightened them.”
“You’re a liar,” Keira forced out as the tears blurred her vision. She could feel her anger, her pain harmonizing with her magic. Its power radiated from her, thorns sprouting from the dry ground.
Around her, the circle of fire dimmed until only glowing embers remained to illuminate the night. The old man watched her carefully, but said nothing in his own defense.
Memories played unbidden through her mind.
Moments she had thought at the time were nothing but good fun, and all at once she could see it, the genuine fear in her mother’s eyes when snakes had spilled from her cooking pot.
She could hear the gentle lies in her father’s voice as he told her it was alright that she had caught the barn on fire, that he understood it had only been an accident, that he wasn’t angry.
“Come, Keira,” the wizard said finally.
There was a final stubborn moment before the thorns fell away, before Keira allowed acceptance to wash over her.
Her family had been frightened of her, her magic.
It was unpredictable, untrained. They hadn’t known how to control it, how to help her.
Perhaps it was still true that they had sent her here to give her a chance at a better future… even if it was one without them.
Keira wiped her eyes and followed Ignatius back to the dark horse, leaving the last piece of her old life behind her.