Chapter 6- Asterin

“Dreams are the essence of magic. It is said that the first time a woman with the name Black communicated with the Mother, it was through a dream.”

-Book of house Black, Beginning of the end

In the three days passing from the last moment Asterin had seen Luke, she’d spent her time brewing useless positions and practicing old methods of healing. Luke was with Monika, so all was good; and he did not have the slightest clue that Asterin had saved him. That made things even better. She had to avoid him, for his safety and her own.

During these three days she had also managed to ignore her nightmares. Although they were neither frightening nor gruesome, there was no way she could ever call them dreams. Because no matter how lovely some of them were, they belonged to a time that Asterin would beg to forget.

Asterin was now in her chamber, practicing words that she did not understand, enchantments that made no sense but worked wonders. There was a book in her hands as she sat on the edge of her bed. The book was old, certainly older than Asterin herself, and it contained ways of how to cure rare diseases. For whatever reason healers were the only ones in Elwaira who had access to magic, hundreds of years ago magic flowed through every bloodline, and different types of mages and witches lived in every corner of the kingdom.

But when the world decided to worship the gods instead of Mother and Elwin – the goddess of fate and chaos – magic also slowly went away. No more kids with extraordinary powers were born, and each decade less people were blessed by Mother. Now, the only way to learn the arts of witchery were through healing, which was of course learnt and not gifted by birth.

Asterin herself did not think she’d have any remarkable ability even if magic was around. She could do alright when it came to learning spells, but even Monika had told her that she had no real talent. She did not have the hunch it took to be a proper healer.

Footsteps sounded from outside her room, but no knock followed after it. Her room was close to the main part of Star Spire and the hallways that connected to it were never empty. Another footstep sounded, this one a bit heavier, perhaps it even belonged to a man. It stopped right outside her room, and just when Asterin thought the person would open the door, the footsteps once again continued. Whoever the person was, he was gone.

She put down the book in her hand, careful to first place a piece of paper in between the pages she was reading, it would be such a waste of time to find the page she was in later. Then she was up on her feet and in front of her mirror. What she was wearing was indeed modest enough to walk around with, but it did not bring out the beauty of her blue eyes or her golden hair like her gowns in the castle did.

Upon her first days here, she had learnt one lesson before anything else. That beauty, however important of a weapon it was for a woman in court, was useless among the healers. They saved lives, finding a husband was not on top of their priorities. So even though she hated the long white dress that covered her body like some sort of rag, she did not change. Instead, she took out a scarf from her closet and wrapped it around herself for extra warmth. Winter would be upon them in a few months, its cold breeze already in the air.

Her head was still pounding from all the studying she’d done the last night. These days her closest companions were wakening tonics and books. Throwing herself into learning was always the best way to avoid emotions. It had been the same with dancing when she was in the castle, back in those days she also liked to distract herself when her mother and father broke into arguments about how bizarre Serrina was.

For a moment Asterin wished she had not criticized her older sister so much; after all, two years ago Serrina was the only one who stood up to her father in her favor. No one else had dared question Lord Black, not their mother and not even Asterin herself. None had tried to save Asterin from a terrible fate but Serrina.

She moved her body and found herself in front of her door. There was a strong urge in her heart that made her feel like someone wanted to talk to her, but it was of course impossible for Asterin to feel that even if it was true. Regardless, she turned the handle and stepped outside.

It was the smell of burnt wood and lavender that she noticed first. Was Monika giving another lecture in the main hall? If she was then had no one bothered to inform Asterin. With a growing anger rising in her stomach, she walked in the long hallway. Things like that used to happen before, in a time when everyone saw her as an outcast from court.

A fire seemed to grow inside her, one that reeked of anger and frustration. She’d thought they had stopped neglecting her. She had done everything to be the same as the healers. Her stupid dress was proof of that, because the Asterin that those in court knew never failed to perfect her appearances. As she walked, she just hoped that not much of the lecture had passed.

The walls of Star Spire were all made of a strange white stone that was mined through mountains across the land. Legend had it that the first mages had made the tower as the last hope of mankind, whatever that meant. It was said that this tower was part of a set of buildings that were not only made by magic, but were also magical on their own.

There were three main locations in Elwaira marked with ancient enchantments: Star spire, the haunted fields and Zandora known as the castle of solitude. The first one everyone knew of, and second one was too frightening for mare villagers to visit. But truly the third was the one that sent shivers down the spine of those who knew of it.

As Asterin reached the doors of the main hall, she took a deep breath. If she went in, then it meant that she had decided to interrupt a lecture midway. It was not something Monika forgave, but it was not Asterin’s fault that no one had cared enough to tell her about it.

It was now or never; she could go back and stay in her rooms until Monika was done. Maybe then someone could lend her their notes. But no, Asterin had to once again prove that she was now part of this community.

Resting her hands on the huge icy handles of the doors, she pushed with all her strength. At first her eyes landed on the huge pot and a lavender smelling tonic inside it. Then she saw the fire that the pot rested on and after that the circle of healers- Monika included- who kept adding ingredients in it.

Maybe not a lecture then.

But minutes later, time stopped as she figured out what had just happened. There was a boy in the middle of the healers, a boy that had a wound on his upper body. He had been talking to Monika when Asterin opened the doors, his gaze had drifted to her the moment she’d come in. her eyes widened in fear, her mouth went dry and her stomach turned.

The boy, was no other than Luke.