A War of Gems

CHAPTER ONE

Fai Faiva. The merchant hissed at me as I dropped a withered sac of golden coins onto his wooden countertop, tucking my new steel blade convincingly into my black boot. Fae. He practically spat at me. The world was split because of my blood- because of what I was. Little did the mortals know how heedless I felt about them. Partly because I needn't be threatened by a lesser, weaker, and unsustaining kind; and partly because even if I wanted to use my fae abilities, my parent's would apprehend me. It happened to my sister, Synne Dagnall, when we were 8 years of age. Synne discovered that she had the ability to manipulate an entire psyche- from a person's thoughts, to their inclinations and wildest desires. We were in the courtyard of our schoolhouse, the sky painted with the cries of the children yet to come. I was sitting on the overturned stones, eating some stale bread offered to me by my brother earlier in the morning, when I observed Synne as she attempted to tease one of the older boys. She had an unequivocal crush on him of course, and what else is there to do other than tease the boy, in hopes that he teases you back, making you feel like you just swallowed a dozen stones. I truly will never understand why one chooses to fall in love, it is exactly that- a heavy feeling in your stomach that does not go away with medicinal herbs, or even a stream of salty oceans spilling from swollen eyes. But that is beside the point. Everyone in our small village knew what we were, and despite Synne's charisma, carried in her beautiful golden locks, the boy was not having her impassioned advances.

"Get away from me you freak." The human boy snickered and turned to all of his friends, as various chuckles broke out amongst the group.

"But you told me you liked talking to me," Synne pleaded as she took a step forward with pouting eyes. She wasn't lying, that much was true. One of our many fae abilities included the gift of amplifying sound from yards away. I remember him speaking those exact words, as I listened from inside of the house, one night when Synne snuck out to see him.

"I never said that. You're a freak and a liar," the boy began as he stepped forward and used his palms to shove my poor sister to the ground. This was the moment where I immediately stood up and searched for a schoolmaster, in hopes an adult would do something. "Let's get her!" The boy screamed as his friends formed a commanding circle around my sister's tattered body.

"Stop!" I wailed, as my legs took over and I sprinted across the courtyard, only to be intercepted by a plumpish boy with inflated arms. He squeezed me so tight that my chest felt as if it was collapsing on itself, unabling me from tending to my sister.

"Help-" my sister choked, wrapping her arms around her skull, as she was brutally kicked and stomped on by the 6 boys in the circle.

I didn't really know how long it went on for. All I remember was seeing bouts of blackness, followed by blood splattering across my thin legs. I remember thinking how useless I was. What good was super strength and heightened senses if all I was to accomplish was a front row seat to my own sister's death? At least that's what I thought at the time. I didn't know this event would be one that changed everything.

I remember opening my eyes again and screaming for my sister as her body went limp. I thought her mind had escaped her, that she was gone.
Until the boy leading the attack stopped.

He stopped kicking.

He stopped stomping.

He stopped cheering.

He strolled over to the bed of stones I had been sitting on across the courtyard, with his assailants halting in their positions, and watching carefully. With a stoic expression on his face, the boy picked up a stone, turned and faced his group, and brought the stone to his head in one quick movement.

And then again.

And again.

His friends watched in horror as the boy beat himself bloody with the stone. Screams erupted throughout the group, and I swear I could remember one of the boys soiling himself before he ran off the property. I was released as the rest of them followed suit. I ran over to my sister and placed her head in my lap, stroking her crimson-turned curls.