Escaping Astren

Chapter Fourteen

"I can't believe Father is taking this long to get home."

I huffed, kicking my feet off the side of my bed. He was always late, with lame excuses like 'being a Cearte is a very demanding job' and 'it was a long walk home', but this was even worse than usual. He didn't even come home at all last night, and now he was missing reading me my bedtime story again.

"Fine. I guess I'll read it by myself." I tossed my long, brown hair over my shoulders in determination, scooching off the mattress until my bare feet touched the hardwood floor. It was cold with Elder's Season just having begun, and I shivered a bit, reaching for my magik.

Like any other year, it was easy to feel my magik during Elder's Season. It was always more powerful then, so long as someone didn't try to use too much. I just wanted a little light and warmth though, and- taking a deep breath in- I dug into the furls of flame within my Will, then exhaled, pushing it into my hand. Instantly, violet flames burst between my fingers, lighting my dark skin aglow, but it didn't burn any more than quicky passing a hand through a candle. Then again, no fire could burn me. I'd learned that when I was very small. It was just another thing Father said was strange about me, and that I could never show anyone.

But home was so boring, especially when he was never ever here. All there was to do was draw and read stories, and now he wasn't even doing that for me. I made my way over to the bookshelf at the other end of my room, holding up the fire to try and look at what books might have the most pictures to read to myself in the low, amethyst light. It was lonely.

"Father should just make me a sister already," I muttered, running my fingers along one book spine, then another. "He doesn't even need a wife. I'm old enough to do all the mother things. He wouldn't even have to make her a baby. He could make her nine. That's fine."

The more I thought about it, nine was a perfect age for someone, and I would know. Nine was old enough to not get into trouble and take care of yourself, which meant that the only reason I didn't have a sister already was because Father was too lazy to get me one.

A grumble left me as I finally flipped through all the books on the shelf. None of them were good ones, and if I was truly old enough to have a sister, then shouldn't I be old enough for other things?

My head turned to look at the other end of the room. Father's side. He had his own things there, like a desk with his other Cearte robe draped over it, a sword on the wall I was never supposed to touch except for when I secretly touched it, and his own, personal shelf.

"Aha!" I shouted, running to the other side. That was where he kept the book of legends that all the Cearte were meant to read. Sometimes he would pull it off the shelf for me, putting me in his lap to read while his weird, squarish eyes ran over the words behind thin glasses, but he never got to the end of it, always snapping the book shut and giving me a gross kiss on the head before telling me to sleep.

But tonight, he wasn't here to stop me from pulling the books off the lowest shelves, stacking them higher and higher until I could reach the thick, brown tomb that sat balanced on the very top. He couldn't stop me from jumping back on my feather-filled mattress and flipping through the pages to read by the light of the fires I let dance around my head.

There were lots of stories in the book, but I knew most of them by heart. I passed a page showing the Air god, Eór, forming his Will into a solid, blue orb to protect his children from a storm, another story about The Lochulan forming a ring of water around Esternia to stop an ancient drought... I yawned, swinging my feet behind me as I lay on my stomach, continuing to flip. These were super old legends. The pictures didn't even draw all the Dust in the sky, making it look an odd, bright blue. No, I wanted the ones that Father hadn't let me see before, and as my fingers made their way to the last two chapters, I saw a picture I hadn't seen before.