4 Euphoria

The girls left the visitors room quietly as they saw that something was wrong with Daiyu. Once they had shut the door they raced upstairs and into Meiying's room laughing and jumping. Although Huiliang and her stepmother had a very poor relationship, she and her half-sister got along just fine, apart from the fact that she was considered a servant rather than a sister.

The thing is that after her father remarried he refused to touch his new wife and was always out for long business trips that usually took months. Since it frustrated her stepmother that she was unable to conceive a son or any child at that, she took to all her anger and frustration on poor Huilang and started overworking her and tormenting the child.

Whenever Huiliang would cry or make a mistake she would lock up the child for days in the dark, damp and dirty basement, only occasionally, after a day or two, feeding her with half a loaf of leftover bread a spoonful of vegetables and a cup of water.

Huiliang soon got used to this treatment and since she was afraid of the basement with all the rats in it, she tried to do all her tasks to the best of her ability

Meiying, in all her excitement, jumped on her bed while Min Wei stood by the bed and watched. "I can't believe it," squealed Meiying" I get to be in the same school as Tri Monarchy. They are rumoured to be the smartest, most handsome men in all of Astiadore. And I get to meet them, this is so cool!" She squealed.

Huilang smiled. She was glad her sister was happy. "I'm glad I even got to go at all," she whispered, almost in tears.

"Huilang don't say that! You heard what that woman said, there is no mistake, you are gifted and there's nothing anyone can say about it, you're also the smartest person I know. We'll stick together through thick and thin and we will prove to whoever looks down on us that we are the best. Let's go there and show them who's boss!" Meiying said reaching over to wipe the tears from her older sister's cheek.

"Yeah, let's show them! " Huilang affirmed punching the air and they burst out laughing.

...

Later that night after completing all her work, and the extra jobs her step-mother added to vent her anger, Huiliang, being quite exhausted, sat on the rickety old bed in her room which was located in the servants quarters, thinking about what had happened that day. She reached beneath her bed and pulled out a small wooden box inside on a miniature cushion an amulet lay.

This was the last gift her mother had given her on her death bed. She had said that she should regard it with her life and not part with it because it would be the thing that would give her what she couldn't give herself.

The amulet was a clear diamond, it was shaped like a heart and in it, it had a pinkish mist that glowed and swirled around and when Huiliang looked at it closely enough she could see a unicorn figure galloping around gracefully.

Every night she would talk to the amulet and tell it about her day. If she was in a bad mood or upset just holding the amulet calmed her down.

Huiliang treasured the gem because it felt like a shard of her mother was left behind and was watching over her and comforting her.

"Mother I got accepted into Astiadore School for gifted children today so that means I'm not weird as my stepmother said, I am gifted like you and my father" as she said this a tear rolled down her cheek "Mother I'm so happy" the amulet began to glow brighter. Huiliang felt that it was her mother giving her a big hug like she always did when she was alive.

After a while, when her tears had dried up Huiliang gently put the amulet back in its box and climbed into her bed.

She could not sleep though the rickety old bed that she lay on was part of the reason she could not drift off but after her head touched the pillow she began thinking about what had happened previously that day and she just couldn't sleep.

It was her dream come true to go to magic school. Her mother was able to use magic and as a little girl would show her daughter spells and tricks. When her mother died she had told her that she was someone special and that she should grow up happy and live the life she wanted.

She had believed her mothers words and held them close to her heart. But after her sixteenth birthday and their was no signs of manifestation, she could only watch her litter sister manifest some amazing powers with a saddened heart. It was not that she wasn't happy for her sister, she truly was.

It was just that fire, that glimmer of hope that her mother had left her started to fade. Years passed and it was nothing but a spark, a memory of what never happened.

Miss Alixa's visit had rekindled that bright fire inside her and unkown to the serious woman, she became a role model of a child that she overlooked and saw nothing in...