Ch. 5 Life as I Knew it

The small island that we mages called home floated in the middle of a giant crater that held nothing but water below. It was connected to the mainland by a single land bridge that was just big enough for three horses to walk side by side comfortably. There weren't many people that dared to bring a wagon over it.

I had lived my entire life in this magical place. Our ancestors, while trying to avoid persecution, were searching for a way to keep their people safe. They had found this small chunk of land in the bottom of the chasm and lifted the little haven up and held it there with some of the most powerful magic ever wielded. Magic that was long ago lost to the mages of our time. By doing this, they'd effectively made an impenetrable stronghold for their people to find refuge from the prejudices of their time.

I reflected for a moment how I was similarly working on a way to free my people from the oppression that after centuries of peace had resurfaced over the past few decades. Only, since we had flourished so much in the past centuries, this tiny floating isle wasn't enough to sustain us anymore, and we needed a new option. Where our island was great for fending off armies, it didn't stave off hunger and starvation.

The chasm was too wide to shoot an arrow across, let alone grappling hooks. And the water below was too far down to scale the island that way as well. The bridge being so narrow made it impossible for armies to be able to overwhelm the mages that lived here. It made for a perfect defensive stronghold, the original architects had seemingly thought of everything.

However, they hadn't seen our current situation on the horizon. What they hadn't accounted for was that more mages would seek refuge here than could possibly flourish on this small section of land, becoming trapped due to wars and the humans who would kill them simply for being magic-wielders.

Mages that were captured and forced to work for other Kingdoms gave every other Kingdom the same idea, that mages were just tools for their use. As more and more Kingdoms "claimed" a mage or two of their own, humans began hating and distrusting us mages out of fear of things they'd heard being done by those of us that were being held captive by enemy rulers. Not to mention the actions of those trying to escape their imprisonments. They didn't believe we should be free because we were too dangerous to be left alive or untethered to their courts.

Most of the kingdoms felt that us magic wielders were too strong to not be controlled or at the least allied to them, so many of them had taken it upon themselves to either enslave or eradicate us. A mage traveling alone these days was in more danger than a rabbit in a fox den. The numbers dwindling down lower than they had ever been in written history, with two of the seven Keystone Families having already been wiped out.

"Lyra..." The Queen began, breaking our silence, but I cut her off, painting one of my cocky smiles on my face.

"It's okay, mother. I'll handle this. I understand what needs to be done, what's at stake. I'll do everything in my power for our people," I promised, leaning against the banister.

She nodded, offered a smile of her own in return and put her palm against the side of my cheek. "You're so much stronger than I give you credit for, my Lyra," she bent and kissed the top of my head. I relaxed my shoulders and leaned into her embrace. "I'm going to hate seeing you leave, and the storm that will rack our island for days afterwards will be a firm reminder to our people to appreciate what you have sacrificed and continue to sacrifice for them," Sylvren said, a small smile pressed against my hair.

"Thank you, mother," I said, it was the only thing I could make myself say.

My mother straightened and slipped back into her role as Queen, "Come," she said, "We have a meeting to prepare for." She held her hand out to me, palm down.

I took a deep breath and nodded, keeping a small smile on my face as I pressed the back of my hand to the palm of her outstretched one, in the formal way our people communicated mutual respect. A mage's status or strength determined whose hand sat atop the other's in formal situations. In that instance, my hand would go atop her's as my power was stronger even though my title was still only Princess. However, my title alone still dictated that I was the future leader of our people, and as such had higher status than anyone else, aside from the Queen Mage and her Consort. But I knew, my power had me outranking every other mage I knew of. Even though I never used it.

However, despite my ranking being higher than hers, whenever we were alone together, I always submitted to her hand out of respect of her being my mother. The Queen shot me a loving smile and together, we walked from the room.

I glanced back over my shoulder as we walked away from my favorite view in the world. From everything I knew, and away from life as I knew it.