Revenge Of Fallen Stars

One

Cyra

"Miss me?"An arm lazily slings around my shoulders, I act on instinct, grabbing the wrist tightly hoping to leave a bruise. I jab my elbow out, satisfied when I hit a stomach and hear a grunt of pain next to me. "Someone's been practicing." The person speaks, I turn my head and see Keidon Fletcher smirking down at me. "Someone hasn't." My fingers relax around his wrist and he shakes off the remainder of my grip. Keidon has been annoying me since birth, he knows I wouldn't have it any other way. He's the only true friend I have in this miserable village. We've been closer since the world was hit by the stars, we share almost everything with each other. Crops were scarce, making what little food supply was left triple in prices and our once vibrant village filled with plant life was now muddy and worn. Viridity was a paradise when I was younger, I would pick a bouquet of flowers from the forest everyday, now I couldn't even find a blade of grass. Keidon and I make our way down towards the village center, passing another missing persons report. "Do you think the Daethos have anything to do with that?" The Daethos overran Terraveile's government not long after The Spectra- in which the stars hit the planet- since then, there's been a rise of deaths due to unknown illnesses and mysterious disappearances. "Why would you say that?" Keidon questions, eyeing up some fruit on a stand, he almost never takes anything seriously. "Don't you think it's strange how they show up and then there's an increase of deaths?" Keidon raises an eyebrow at me. "I'm sure it's nothing, Cee."
The Daethos- Infamously known as Dae- took over the government by force, nothing about them coming into power was fair.
That alone is enough to make me suspicious.
It's been ten years since The Spectra, and we were still seeing the repercussions of it. I decide not to push it and we continue walking through the village, a group of people are huddled around a pile of dry sticks, attempting to make a fire. It hurts to see the people of Viridity in this state, when before The Spectra there was barely any poverty in our part of Terraveile. Another reason to hate the Daethos. While they're living in their high castle with riches and wealth, our villages are dying. A girl, short with strawberry blonde hair flicks her wrist and a burst of fire shoots from her hand. She wears a hood, trying not to bring attention to herself, no doubt. I look to find her eyes again but she disappears into the crowds of people. Did she just create a fire from thin air? Or did I imagine it?
"Cyra." I realize Keidon called me so I turn back to him. "You look like you've seen a ghost, Cee." "It's nothing." I wave it off, it probably was nothing. I blame hunger.
Finally making it to my house, Keidon invites himself in, but that's nothing new. I stay outside for a few seconds, relishing the way the breeze blows past my face. I could close my eyes for a moment and imagine my life was still the same as it was before The Spectra. When our trees were still beautiful, food was more accessible and nobody loved in fear of going missing. I open my eyes and look past my house, into the forest, amidst the brown, dead trees, a glint of light catches my eye. I take slow steps towards the glowing object, when I get closer I realize it's not an object at all, its a small, glowing orb of light. Emitting a mesmerizing glow, casting rainbow hues in each direction. I reach out to touch it, and my fingers close around it. What was this? I pick it up and start walking inside my house, Keidon and my mother are talking about something I find no relevancy in. When suddenly the orb in my hands shakes. The orb explodes into a cloud of sparkly dust. I'm thrown backwards into a wall, hitting my head.
My vision begins to fade.

***

"Cyra." I'm in a peaceful void of darkness, one I would like to stay in. "Cyra." The voice repeats. I open my eyes and realize Keidon is looking down at me, calling me. He stands up and pulls me to my feet, my sight is blurry and my legs wobble beneath me. Once I stabilize myself, I realize my house is full of tall Daethos authority. "Keidon what are they-" I whisper to him but he shushes me, watching them. There's about ten of them, they're all tall, brooding and intimidating. The Daethos authority walk into my living room, wearing matching black and blue uniforms, yet they carry no regard or respect, some knocking vases to the floor. Shattering. I notice they're standing over bodies splayed out across the floor.
My parent's bodies.
Their blood was spilling onto the carpet, one my mom and I bought at the store together years ago.
And now she was bleeding onto it.
Their bodies were un-moving, my parents took no breaths, only a sign of their lifelessness. Both of them had knives stuck someplace in their bodies. Giving me an idea of what happened. Currentblades. My legs give away again, my knees hit the floor and I barely sense Keidon kneeling next to me. My world feels disoriented, hazy, and surreal. I feel my mind struggling to comprehend what I was seeing. They were dead.
Shock was hitting me like I've been physically knocked in the gut, stealing breath from my lungs. I couldn't think, I couldn't see, a thick fog enveloped all my senses. Everything felt blurred at the edges, like I was watching everything from a distance. I felt strangely detached, only painfully aware of one thing blaring at the front of my mind. I'm staring at my parent's bodies.
Suddenly I feel a harsh grip on my arm, in another world I would have cried out at how tight this person was holding me. But right now I couldn't find myself to care.
I'm still gaping at the bodies, bodies I once talked to, laughed with and cried with. Now I was crying alone. And they were reduced to nothing but lifeless figures. My gaze rises up to the Daethos guards standing over my parents. Emotionless. One in particular stood out, he looked haunted. A palpable darkness clung to him. I couldn't see much of his features, as he was turned down in the other direction. His hair spilled down his face, a mess of black tangled vines, mirroring the chaos of death that seemed to surround us.
I took in the scene before me, my parents forms laying still on the floor of their own home, surrounded by Dae. In that moment, I knew that nothing would be the same again.
That was the moment I decided.
Daethos were my enemy.