Travel

Gods I hates him.

Why did he have to drag me out like that? I rub the sore spot on my arm, feeling the anger build in me.

Staring at the floor watching Joffrey endlessly tap his foot on the hard wood of the carriage.

This damned mage.

I breathe. Breathe in deep, and try to clear my mind, but every time I close my eyes I see mother. Mother crying, falling into the road calling my name. Why couldn't they spare a moment to let me say goodbye? To hug mother and my siblings?

I feel the tears build up again and I push them down.

I definitely hate them.

The hatred I feel washes back over me, turning into guilt, the guilt I felt not coming to mother more in the past few months. I pushed everything down, everything I felt. After seeing Elise leave on her day of calling, never to see or hear from her since then broke me. A sadness I've never felt since father left again for the front lines.

I kept it in, kept doing everything I was supposed to but never actually coming to mother for anything. I regret it. I wish I told her everything I felt when father left, when Elise left. I felt a cold shattering in my chest and it became hard to breathe.

Joffrey looked up from his book, his silver eyes reflecting the blue lights in the cabin.

"We'll be going to the city of lyfette to use the gate then we'll be in the capital. Once we're there you'll immediately be bathed and changed." He looked at me and scoffed.

"Sending a man of my caliber to the slums for a useless child." Joffrey muttered as he went back to tapping his foot.

The engines quietly traveled through the thick wood surrounding the city of Siren. The woods would typically be a few days journey from Siren to Lyfette, but Joffrey made it seem like it'll be hours. I wondered just how fast we were going but on another thought, maybe not. I didn't dare look out the carriage window.

I remember going to Lyfette with mother and father when I was young before my brother and sister were born.

I caught a toad. I happily shown it to mother only for her to gasp and yell out to father.

" Joshua! Come quick!"

Father was talking with the shop keep. He dropped everything and ran over. Mother pointed at my hand and his eyes followed. His eyes grew large as the plates at the tavern.

"Elena, carefully put the toad on the ground." I did as he said wondering what was happening. As soon as the toad left my hand father unsheathed his sword and sliced the toad in half. I watched in horror as black smoke released from the toads corpse. Mother ran to me checking my skin.

"That was a corrupted toad but she shows no blight." Mother said astounded.

We quickly left after that. Mother and father were afraid people would see what happened, that I was in fact immune to blight.

after we left Lyfette father made me perform a blood promise,which kept me from accidentally telling anyone.

I hated that.

A stirring outside distracted me from my thoughts. The tall man who I now know of as Marcus, from all of Jofferys bickering, opened the carriage door. The bright sunlight from outside momentarily blinding me.

"We've arrived." Marcus said plainly.

"Finally!" Joffrey exclaimed. Joffrey shoved my legs from his way to exit the carriage.

I glance at Marcus. He had taken his jacket off and wore a plain shirt that hugged his muscles tightly. His dark ashen skin drew in the light like a shadow. He had short black hair that spiked erratically splitting at here his horns protruded from his scalp.

'Demon?' I thought. Not taking notice before.

Demons were a prolific race, mostly built of men. Women lived with harems of men who would flight for their turn. The demonesses lived on the southern quadrant of the kingdom where they governed their own. I've met a few demons, they mostly worked as guards and did manual labor. One demon could lift more than 2 tons, or so my books say. I've never seen such a occurrence before.

I clenched my jaw and stepped from the carriage into the blinding sun of Lyfette city.

Taking a moment to adjust my eyes I saw that Lyfette had changed quite a bit since I last came with mother and father. The cobble streets were now compact and flat, the old stone and mortar buildings are a shiny black stone. Where small street vendors were are now towering buildings with magical visions playing in the air.

"Come!" Joffrey yelled as he walked away at a surprising fast pace. I jogged to catch up and walked quietly behind him. I could feel in the air that we were coming close to the gate, feeling small ripples and reverberating magic in the air. As we arrived, Joffrey pulled a small red note from his robes, handing it to the guard. The guard took a quick glance at the note immediately bowing, as did the surrounding guards.

"Welcome magus Joffrey, your gate has been prepared." The guard said after standing.

Joffrey smirked and followed another guard to a small stage where metal arches stood, in the center the gate opened, a magnificent and radiant purple appeared humming to life. It felt incredible. I've never been so close to such powerful magic before. I could feel the pull of it wanting it to wrap itself around me. I followed Joffrey into the gate and in a blink we arrived in the heart of the capital.