Chapter 7 (Sold)

  "Alright, go again!" Garrison shouted. His booming voice echoed through the courtyard. Gritting my teeth, I reached into my first core and drew out its energy into my hands. Before me a red, violent sphere of energy spun as I tried to compress and contain it within my hands. The poorly refined energy burned as I held it between my palms.

  "AH!" I screamed as the energy burst. It escaped, forcing my hands apart, and I fell flat on my back. "Why is this so hard?"

  Garrison laughed as he walked over and stood in front of me. "What you consider to be hard is usually impossible for children your age," he said with a proud grin stretching across his face. He offered me his hand and I took it, pulling myself back up. "I was expecting to just teach you how to detect your core and arc veins. Controlling your arc externally usually didn’t happen for another six months after your core ceremony."

  "Woah! You're so cool, Liah!" Tobias called out from the steps that led down to the courtyard. He had been watching us train for the past hour and a half, cheering me on as I tried to control my arc. I couldn’t help but fluster at the sound of his praise.

  "What, me? No, you are the coolest little brother ever!" I said back, to which he responded with a cocky grin.

  "I'm sure the fact that you're working with a red core, though, is part of the difficulty," Garrison said after clearing his throat. "Red cores are less efficient in refining the raw arc all around us, so it's harder for you to replenish all that energy you're losing." Garrison turned and started walking back inside, and I stumbled after him.

  "Hey Gramps, I feel super dizzy and tired. What gives?" I asked, dragging my feet along behind him.

  "When you use up as much energy as you have, your core has to work hard to refill itself. It's almost like you’ve held your breath for too long and you're finally breathing again," Garrison explained simply. "Also, I told you not to call me GRAMPS, young lady!"

  Tobias chuckled and joined me in making fun of our tutor. "Grandpa! Grandpa!" we teased together. Garrison's ears turned red as we walked back into the study.

  "Red cores can only be used so much. Unless you want to shatter your core and kill yourself, I suggest you rest when you first feel the signs of energy withdrawal." The way Garrison snapped his head to look at us got the point across how serious what we were talking about was. Tobias reached for and grabbed my hand as if to tell me he didn’t want to lose me.

  "I understand, Gramps, so lighten up. You don't have to worry about me being so careless," I said, trying to sound reassuring for both Garrison's and Tobias' sake.

  "Goodness, I don't know where you learned to be so grown up." Garrison laughed deeply. "It definitely wasn’t from me, that’s for sure!"

  "You're leaving already?" I asked as Garrison began packing his bag.

  "Yup. It's a shame I got here so late, but it's starting to get dark now, and there's not much I can teach you tonight. I wasn’t prepared for you to be such a prodigy." Garrison laughed as he started to leave. "Have a good night, you two. Tobias, make sure you finish your math homework by the time I come back tomorrow."

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  "Yes sir!" Tobias said with a sickening level of excitement. The little guy was one of those math-loving weirdos. "Bye, Gramps!"

  "And DON’T CALL ME GRAMPS!" Garrison yelled back as he stormed out the front door. Tobias and I couldn’t help but laugh at him.

  "You two should be nicer to that old man," Melody said as she walked into the study with some tea.

  "Oh, hi Melody. What's this?" I asked, since I wasn’t expecting anything.

  "Oh, this? It's just Tyca Tea. It's been said to help your body purify your arc. But it's really good for relaxing." She poured me a cup and placed the tea platter on the study table. It was a bit too high for either of us to even reach. Handing me my cup, I began to sip the tea. It tasted funny, almost like grass or fish.

  "I don't think I like Tyca Tea," I said, grimacing. Melody just giggled. "What's not to like? It'll make you nice and strong!"

  "Why is it that nasty stuff is always best for you?" I asked, taking another sip of the unpleasant-tasting tea.

  "You know, I used to wonder about that all the time too," Melody said playfully as she gave me some biscuits to go with the tea.

  "Can I have some?" Tobias asked, tugging at Melody's dress.

  "You can have some biscuits, but you can’t have any of the tea—it’s special for your sister!" Melody said as she handed Tobias a couple of biscuits of his own. He took them and ran like the little food bandit he was, making Melody and me both laugh at how silly he could be.

  Melody was right about one thing. I had drunk about half of the Tyca tea, and I felt myself growing even more tired. My eyes started to flutter as they struggled to stay open. It wasn’t long before I could hear Melody saying something. Or rather, see. Her lips were moving, but her voice was too warbled for me to actually understand anything she was saying.

  ---

  Melody Santaria

  Looking down at Kaliah, my heart began to race. This was it, this was where I had to make up my mind once and for all. As I stared at this little girl I was forced to contemplate what was most important to me. Did I value the life of this little girl whom I had practically raised, over the life of my father who raised me?

  The question was easy to answer. Picking Kaliah up, I carried her out of the study. I could hear the voices of Mr. and Mrs. Deligan as they talked in the common room. Walking as quietly as I could, I made my way toward the back of the house. Opening the door to the courtyard, I carefully closed it behind me. Looking out across the courtyard, I knew all I had left to do was make it to the edge of the forest.

  Holding Kaliah tightly, I took off across the courtyard, channeling my arc and spreading it throughout my body to give myself a boost of speed. The distance never seemed longer than it did now. With every step a tear fell from my eyes. I kept telling myself it was all for my father, it was all worth it. Most of me believed it, but there was a part of me that knew better.

  As I stepped into the forest I looked back at the manor from which I had just kidnapped Kaliah… The thought of going back and acting as if nothing had ever happened filled my mind. No one knew a thing, I still had time… As I turned with my eyes full of tears, a voice reached my ears from deeper within the forest.

  "What are you doing, hurry up, come on!" I turned to see a man dressed in dark colors gesturing for me to come over. His face was covered with a black mask.

  "Yes, of course, I'm sorry," I said, taking one last look at the house before stepping deeper into the forest.

  The man didn’t say much of anything as we walked through the woods. His footsteps were light, and despite the brush on the forest floor, not a single twig snapped beneath his feet. I, on the other hand, stumbled and struggled not to drop the girl in my arms as we continued onward.

  After about a fifteen-minute walk we came to a road within the forest where four other men in black masks were waiting for our arrival. They stood next to a motor carriage. One man, with a white line drawn vertically across his mask, leaned against the carriage.

  "Is this the girl?" he asked, his voice foreign from what I knew. But it seemed he spoke good Osmiran.

  "Yes sir, this is her," I quietly responded. I still held onto Kaliah tightly, my body screaming for me not to give her up to these people.

  The man with the white mark simply gestured to the one who had led me to this road. He nodded and started to take Kaliah out of my hands. I kept my tight grip and pulled back against him. He obviously wasn’t expecting this. He returned my pull with one of his own, stripping Kaliah from my arms. Despite the mask, his eyes pierced through, and I could see death itself within them.

  "Do we have a problem?" the man with the white mark asked. I simply shook my head, rubbing my arms in shame of what I had just done. "Fit et eck ara," he said in a foreign language I couldn’t quite place. But his men understood him well. As they put Kaliah in the back of the carriage, another grabbed a small box and handed it to me.

  "Thank you…" I said quietly, new tears welling up in my eyes. I now held fifteen thousand Amps.

  Wordlessly, the five men loaded up into the carriage and took off. I fell to my knees, crying as I counted through the money. "I can finally take care of you, Papa…" I cried out in pain as I watched the carriage disappear into the night.