1 Power

"Is power

worth the isolation and the loss of yourself?"

"You must practice more son, why can't you be more like Jade." This is what my father often said to me when it was time to train. I'm the successor to a prominent fire clan; Clan Rodroak. However, there's one problem; I don't have an affinity for fire, My father is the strongest Pyromancer to date. My mother, however, was a peace treaty from a rival clan. She was a princess from Clan Irien, a very hidden and mysterious clan. Though everyone thought she was mundane. She often came to me to cheer me up when my father yelled at me.

"Oh, there's Jade. C'mere and show Blaze how it's done." Jade is my father's best student and my father treats him like his own kin. He waves his hands around with ease and fire erupts from his palm, circles around him, and turns into a small bird of fire. Jade would always show his ability to make sure that I looked 100 times inferior.

"Very well Jade, only if you could be the next heir." Jade looks grateful, but I know under that smile there's an evil snicker.

"Thank you, sir. I'm not worthy of your gratitude." My father just eats this up.

"Look here children", My father takes out a small vial of a black mist. Jade looks excited for some reason and my mother looks horrified.

"Get that thing out of here, It should've been burned a long time ago." He laughs, dismissing her comment. Jade stares at the vial for a while, like he's entranced by it. With a hypnotic look in his eyes, he reaches for a nearby knife. I try screaming out but my mouth won't open. I can't move my body. I'm helpless. I look around and notice an eye in the vial, and what seems to be a wide grin.

Before I can process this, blood splatters onto me; my father's face is losing color. My mom takes me and runs as far as she can. Behind me is Jade and the thing in the vial merging into one, his blood-curdling screams only echoing in the hallway. My mother has bloodstains in her onyx hair,

"You have to come back and save your people. Take this and run, I'll hold him back for you. She gives me a small gem, it's so very dark and cold. I run and run as she told me. When I look back at the door, I see her being impaled by the monster Jade has become. There are parts of him that look familiar, but the rest of him is monstrous. There are bronze spikes and spines, a mixture of green and crimson cascading across him.

The gem whispers something, "Umbra."

The alarm rings with a screeching hiss. I keep having that nightmare, the last I remember from my old life. I live now as a pretty normal kid in NYC, attending Saint Joe's High School. I changed my name to Bren. It's been 4 years since I was with my family. I now live with my mother's brother who has nothing to do with the clan. I take my necklace with the gem and get ready to head to school.

"I'm ready when you are," I tell my uncle while I'm eating toast at the counter. He nods and we head out. He's a quiet man, which is good since I'm not a very talkative person either.

I arrive at school to be greeted by my best friends, Ana and Mike. I don't know why Mike wants to be my friend. He's such a popular kid and spending most of his time with a reserved kid like me is insane. He has bright, flowing golden hair and emerald green eyes. Reaching a height of 6'3, a half foot taller than me. A group of girls walks past us and waves. He smiles back and they giggle to themselves.

Ana is a shy girl who I've had a long time crush on. She has long, straight brown hair that gleams in the light and bright, aqua blue eyes. She has a thin pair of glasses. She's just a bit below my height. We all head into the school as we have for the last 3 years.

The day was pretty normal. I think I aced my Bible Studies test. I'm not really big on Christianity, but the stories are so very fun to read about.

After school, we head to our usual meeting spot; The Ward House Cafe. As I walk in, the barista who's always there greets me as he has for the last 2 years. "Howdy there Bren," he tips his cowboy hat towards me.

His name's Roy and he comes from the middle of Texas. He's was just out of high school so only a couple of years ahead of me. He has short, autumn brown hair barely slipping out of his hat. His eyes are charcoal black, sharp, and focused. He wears a modernized cowboy getup with a flannel, tight skinny jeans, and an oak brown leather jacket with an empty holster to his side. I've seen him with a gun so I guess it's part of the aesthetic. I see my friends in the corner where we usually sit.

"Always the last one here aye," Mike says and I chuckle in response. I take a seat and Roy brings out our usual, one black coffee, one sweetened pink lemonade, and a chocolate fudge smoothie. I take my black coffee while Mike takes his lemonade and Ana her smoothie. We all thank him while he trails back to his post.

"I can't believe someone can drink something so bitter," Mike says while shuddering and pointing at my coffee.

"It's a nice wake-up drink after a long day at school. Speaking of which, how did your days go?" I ask the party around. We then talk about how Mike got confessed to again and had to sadly let her down. Ana was psyched for the field trip to the petting zoo next week. For the next hour, we just joke and tell stories. We all say our goodbyes and go our separate ways until tomorrow.

I arrive home and my uncle seems to still be at work. He's a realtor for the NYC HomeView. I finished the evening work and go to reading the bible. I don't believe in how they portray this but of course, I know the reasons. It's a history book on how people perceived magic back in that era. Even though I'm not a caster I want to know as much as possible about my Family's ability to be sorcerers. Easier said than done. The day drained me and I fall asleep shortly after that.

I wake up to the usual routine and see my oh so vibrant friend Mike.

"HEY BREN!!" I jump at the booming voice of Mike throughout the hallway.

"Yes yes? What do you need? So loud.", I wave him towards me in a very small manner to have the least attention possible, doesn't really help thanks to him. "I have something important to tell you and Ana, so after school in the garden". I just agreed, with him it's hard to say to no.

"So what's up?", I ask as we all arrive in the garden. He paces back and forth figuring out how to say this. I collapse on the floor with a sharp pain surging through my head. I recover quickly.

"Holy Lord, are you ok?!", Ana gasps out. My amulet screeches out a hiss. I manage to get up to find my friends held by a giant beast. It growls a low bass tone that makes my ribs vibrate.

"Hello Forgotten One, It's good to finally meet you...Barklay", he points to himself, I take it that's his name. He's literally twice my size and baring 4 arms the size as myself. "Now if you come with me peacefully then none of these flesh bags will be hurt...too much.", he chuckles this sinister laugh.

" I take it that Jade took over?", the creature does this thumbs up. "What does he want with me, I have nothing. He has all the family treasures."

He shakes his head, "he wants you dead twice over", He picks up a stone that size of my head and chuck it at me so quickly I couldn't see it. The stone lays at my feet, and I had my hands in front of my face. It's dusk but my shadows lay around my feet and are slightly evaporating upwards. What did I just do?

Something whispers into my ear, I saved you. If you let me I can save the others too. I accept whatever is talking to me, I want my friends to live. The amulet starting to shake and my own shadow starts to enclose me. My body starts to move on its own like it's a different person. In an instant it jumps onto Barklay, he drops my friends to quickly step back. He raises his hands and 4 swords appear. He tilts one towards us and chuckles.

"Shall we dance?", He dashes towards me at breathtaking speeds with 2 arms raised. My arm jolts up to produce this barrier of shadow, which shatters at the force of the strikes. His two other arms quickly start to thrust forwards, but It managed to duck in between. It Produces a spike from my hands and thrusts in retaliation, he smiles with a terrifyingly wide smile.

"I like playing with my prey", and kicks me. I fly back to the wall making a dent in the concrete. He kicked the breath out of me. Sorry about that. I'll end this quickly, hold on.

It extended my arms outwards and I feel the energy being drained out from my body. The shade around me starts to move towards him at an alarming rate. Spikes starts to extrude outwards and cuts Barklay. He rushes towards my friends but the spikes had surrounded them like a wall. It dashes to him and produced a sword of shade, and they start fighting face to face. While he is advantageous in the number of swords he has.

My body is much smaller and therefore much agiler. It dances around the 4 swords slashing whenever It can. He swings all 4 at once and It jumps upwards and using the might of one of his swings to cut off his upper right arm.

Barklay screams a horrid ear-piercing shout. He has cuts all over his body and one missing arm, "YOU WILL PAY-".

My offhand reactively throws a small shard of shadow and hits him dead in the left eye. Whilst he holds bleeding shoulder and eye he mutters something I can't quite hear. "I will be back and when I do, you will pay". He Grabs something out of his pocket and throws it on the floor. Smoke erupts and he vanishes. My job is here is done. I regain control of my body. My body is weak and flimsy pain radiating through every part.

Mike has a mixture of awe and terror on his face. Ana speaks up for the two of them, "What did we just witness....?", She trails off afraid to say more. "Well, I'm not entirely who you see me, I'm part of a secret society of sorcerers. I was the son of a Pyromancy clan; we control the flames around. However, that was the first I've ever experienced that. This amulet my mom gave me seemed to be in control and was able to talk to me", I reveal it from under my shirt.

They seem to be having trouble comprehending all of this, I don't blame them. "So um, you have the power to control sh-shadows?", Mike is really trying to wrap it around his head, I give him that. "I'm not quite sure myself, all I know is that I have some ability to handle shadows. Beyond that, I'm in the dark."

After a little pause I speak out, "This will probably be the first of many, I'm probably gonna move away if I keep moving then You-"

Ana slapped me to interrupt, tears are streaming down her eyes "Idiot". "She's right, I'm pretty sure you have no one else around you but for us and your uncle If you run you'll probably get yourself hurt before they even catch you", He chuckles a bit at the end. I Look down because if I see their eyes I know I will ball out crying.

"But do you know realize how dangerous this is? Many people have died being this stupid", He just laughs and I look up to see him, a big mistake. I see a glimmer of a single tear and hope in his eyes, it was the same look that my mother gave me when she cast me away.

"Seems like you're too dense and stubborn. Fine, but if you're gonna be there with me, the least you can do is know how to fight", He nods "I'll have them running, Oh and Ana you definitely need to join!" She violently nods her head. "This is the best and stupidest thing any of my friends have done, Thank you."

"The Shadows offers solace to the lost and forgotten"