A Crystal Steeped In Darkness

One

One

              The Beginning

      I pulled my hood up against the cold evening breeze as I made my way toward the orphanage in Dira. When I was about 6 years old my parents mysteriously disappeared and left me alone in the darkness with 3 other children. We were rescued from our previous homes and transferred to this orphanage where we learned to read, write, and clean. Unfortunately, there was a terrible accident and all the adults at the orphanage were killed.

Once I entered I shed my dark cloak and replaced it with something more suitable for indoors. As it was just me and 3 other kids, Jonah Lia and Liam who were also abandoned by their parents I decided to take care of them myself considering I was the oldest. " Vora, did you bring anything from the Dark Market today?" Asks little Liam. He's about 7 going on 8. I crouched down to his level and puled out 3 gore apples and handed one each to them.  " Here you guys go, it's all I could grab without getting caught, sorry," I replied back.  There was a slight disappointment that shined in their eyes. But I just shook my head exhausted as I was and went upstairs to go to bed.

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                    The next morning I got up early to prepare breakfast which wasn't much, some leftover gore apples and dark nectar. "Jonah, could you accompany me to the Market today? We're running low on food and I couldn't get much yesterday because of how heavily guarded the market is at night. He looked at me with those deep gray eyes and nodded slowly. " Ok, let me get changed then we'll leave." After I finished we headed out to the Black Market to hopefully find some food or perhaps a job for me and Jonah. Jonah is 2 years younger than me with jet black hair and a bit of an introvert as he is a teenager. But deep down I know he cares for us all. It must be rush hour today because the market is already jam packed at 9:30 in the morning. " Jonah, go check the job poster board for me while I see what food I can nab. " He just grunts at me and walks ahead toward the center of the market pushing and shoving his way through. While Jonah was busy I looked around to see if there were any unsuspecting  food stall owners so I could feed us something other than those bitter ass gore apples.  There! A Shadow Hog meat stand! We could eat for days if I could get my hands on some. " Here, I found a job we could do, it's really easy. And it seems like someone knows who you are. " Jonah says, startling me. " Jeez, why do you pop out of nowhere like that! You scared me half to death." I chided.   He gave me a paper with some fancy signature written in golden ink. It read:

Dear Miss Vora Dax, I  was wondering if you could have an audience with me in Blackburrow Manor in 2 hours. It is of great importance.  Sincerely Edwin Darkthorn.

As I  read it my curiosity peaked. I looked at Jonah and he just shrugged. " It had your name on it so I grabbed it, do you even know this Edwin guy anyway?" He asked, his gray eyes boring into me. " No! Of course not! Never even heard of him in my life, it's probably just a coincidence or a scam!" But the more I think about it the more it confuses me. And questions appeared in my mind. How does this guy know my name? Who is he? What does he want? I quickly swiped two giant hog ribs and shoved them at Jonah. " Here! I found us some food. Maybe this might cheer up the twins." He just looked at me, his deep stormy gray eyes questioning.

Once we grabbed a few more things like seasonings for the meat and some shade  vegetables. We headed out and went back home. My mind is still on the mysterious letter from earlier. Once we got back the twins Liam and Lia came running towards us, their sandy blonde hair bouncing. " Ooo, what you guys got this time!" They said in unison. Jonah just lifted the shadow hog ribs and I showed the shade vegetables. "We're  going to make shadow hog rib stew!" I told them,  tapping them on their tiny noses.  " Ooo, Yumm!" They giggled. After lunch I decided to see what this letter was all about so I asked Jonah to hold down the fort here. As usual he grunted and closed the door behind me. Shaking my head in slight amusement I looked at the address written on the back of the paper: 1357 Blackburrow rd.