Visions of Love and Heroes

Prologue

The fever hit at mid-afternoon on summer's hottest day. Bright rays shone down on my face from where I sat in the garden, my vision blurring as I tried to make sense of the words in the book in front of me. Magical Herbology, The Basics.

I'd been out there all afternoon trying to get through the chapter, reading and rereading the passages with growing frustration. My hand shook as I tried to scribble a quick note on flaming petunias— petunias that burst into flame at the end of their lifespan, but my hands were numb with cold. My pen slipped from my fingers, and as I tried to catch it, my ink pot fell down on the cobblestones with a tinkling crash.

I stared at the spreading mess, the black ink seeping along the stone in flowing rivulets. Trying to shake off my jumbled thoughts, I reached down for my pen. My head weighed me down and I had to catch myself before I went toppling down in a pile of ink splotches and pages. Shivers raced through my body. I clenched my teeth to keep them from clattering.

Why was it so cold?

"Alexia?"

Erinna approached, her broad muscular chest still partially covered in her brown training armor. She had been down at the training grounds all morning with the other war mage trainees. Her forehead glistened with sweat as she crouched over me, brown eyes squinting against the sun as she frowned. At her neck, her aether crystal glowed red, a strap of leather holding it snug against her skin.

How I longed for one of my own.

"Alexia? Everything alright?"

I pushed up on my arms, trying to hold steady. I shook my head, like that might bring everything in focus.

"Fine. I'm fine. Just too much sun, everything is f-fine--"

I was cut off as a fresh shiver racked my body. Erinna put a large hand on my forehead and ran a hand through her short golden brown hair before shaking her head.

"You're burning up. Please tell me you haven't been doing water shock therapy again?"

Water shock therapy. I considered the long nights hiding down by the docks as I jumped into the cold water to try and awaken my magic. A fool's mission, but I was growing increasingly desperate these days.

"Only once. Or t-twice. Three times if you count last evening, but that was mostly accidental as I... I slipped..."

My head pounded, my vision blurring with dark spots. Everything became light as Erinna picked me up, then unbearably too heavy as she set me on my feet. She tucked a shoulder under my arm, helping support my weight before I toppled over. I reached for my book, but she grabbed it before I could get to it, tucking it under her arm.

"That's enough magic study for now. Off to bed with you. I'll get Brea once you're settled." She shook her head again, then softly enough that I didn't think I was meant to hear her, she added, "Before you kill yourself too."

That night was a blur. Medical mage trainee's came and went as Brea sat beside me, ordering them about. Mother was there too, wringing her hands as she discussed different herbs that may help with Brea's potions. 

Brea worked the fire, warming a caldron as she concocted potion after potion. One to clear the mind containing maidenhair seeds. Another was to clear my chest as coughs racked my body.  In that one, she had used red and yellow echinaceas and the essence of a mandrake that had been repotted in pure moon water. Still, both of them could only fluff my pillows and make me as comfortable as possible.

"I'll be okay." 

Brea's cornflower blond hair was tied back in a hasty knot. She shared Erinna's same brown eyes, only hers were narrowed with concentration, a sharp mind always working behind them. She tucked her turquoise aether crystal away under her clothes so that it didn't get in her way. "There is no deeper fever, you simply caught a chill from down in the river." She frowned. "I told—"

I groaned as my head pounded. "That there was no evidence that water shock therapy works. I know."

Her gaze softened as she stroked my hair back, wringing out a cloth as she placed it on my head. It felt as cold as ice against my searing skin. "I'll save the lecture for later."

My lips quirked. "Please."

Mother stepped forward, sighing heavily. Where Erinna and Brea took after our late father with their light hair and brown eyes, I was nearly Mother's twin. Her inky black hair shone blue and purple under the firelight, and her sapphire eyes, usually cool and distant with her students were now wrinkled with concern as she watched my body shiver and shake under my covers. 

Dr. Phaedra Starfall, the renowned Professor of Magical Herbs and Healing at Mandragon University of Mages, she was considered one of the best mages of her time. She had  turquoise crystal matching Brea's hanging from around her neck.

As were her children. Erinna, an advanced warrior mage who had some of the fastest spell-casting and weapon-enhancing abilities seen in decades. At least since our great-grandmother had graced the University training courts. And then there was Brea, whose healing magic could practically rival Mother's own. Everyone in our family could access the aether.

Then there was me. Still powerless at twenty years of age.

"Your magic will awaken, Alexia. Some gifts take time."

"I've given it time. You know it has been too long, Mother. Let's f-face it..." I paused as I tried to regain order in my mind. It felt like it was splitting down the middle, fracturing open like shards of glass. "No one has ever ended up wielding magic after twenty years have come and gone."

Her silence was all the answer I needed. I turned my head to hide the tears threatening to spill. I did not want to show them how much it pained me. How all my life I had seen magic and so desperately wished for the day I would have some of my own.

Brea removed the cloth, replacing it with a fresh one as she turned my chin so I was forced to meet her gaze. "Rest. When you are better, we can talk."

I swallowed thickly, nodding as my gaze drooped. I eyed the last vial she had given me, milky and sweet. It definitely had contained poppy essence.

"Sleep," she said as my eyes opened and closed; lids heavy as...

~~~

I woke with a start, shock waves rolling through my body. I let out a gasp, air rushing past my ears as I fell back on my pillows. The room was now dark and empty, the fire reduced to low embers. Only Mother remained, her head lolling to the side as she slept in the chair beside me. Moonlight poured in through the open window, a breeze causing the light to flutter as I sat up and stared at my hands. Blue lines still shone under my skin, sparking at my fingertips.

Fever gone, I stood, shaking Mother awake. I had never felt this alive before. Every detail in the room was vivid and sharp, my muscles coiling with unused energy. Aether flowed freely through my body. I cherished it, knowing only at my awakening I would get to feel it in its natural form.

She blinked blearily, slowly adjusting as she woke. Too slowly. Then her body went rigid as she took me in, her gaze locking on mine.

Eyes I knew had to be glowing blue.

"Sight," she gasped. "You have been gifted with Sight." Her gaze narrowed. "And a vision."

I smiled, not even bothering to hide my joy. I knew what I had seen and what it meant. How important I was about to be.  It had been nearly a thousand years since a seer had been gifted with a vision as vital as the one I had just received.

"In six months time as winter spreads upon us, magic will be on the brink of death as the gap between our world and the Aetherworld has already started to close. But I have seen how we will survive it... and the hero that will save us all."

--

Word count: 1274