Fractured Soul

Chapter 2: Myra

The flames eventually burned out, and the girl slowly rose from unconsciousness to sleep, and dreams.

She was proud of what she had accomplished. Bri was going to show her how to control her main element, spirit.

Another spirit wielder, who she had never learned the name of, ran in with panic in her eyes.

“Rhydonans are coming. With an army. They’re almost at the temple gates.” she gasped.

Bri’s eyes had widened in fear, but her voice was calm.

“Evacuate the temple. You,” Bri pointed to her. “Your lessons are going to have to wait. Leave with the others.” Bri said.

She did not want to leave at all.

“I can stay. I can fight! I’m not a child anymore!” she protested.

“I’m not debating with you, child. Now go!”

An evil laugh made the two of them turn around.

The spirit girl’s eyes had changed to a blood red, and her voice had changed. “Oh, you don’t realize how it is far, far too late for that.”

She spoke a short incantation, and she started to morph. The door started to open, and Rhydonan elementals swarmed in, led by, a child? No, this was a red headed teenager, with red eyes filled with anger and cold triumph and another emotion she couldn’t recognize. His hands were surrounded by blue flames. The girl had finished her transformation, and was almost identical to the boy. They were twins.

The fear that was in Bri’s eyes had crept into her voice, but the girl had missed part of what she said.

“~~Mella, run! Now!” Bri yelled.

She turned to run, and something hot and electric slammed into her shoulder, sending her reeling. The twins laughed and spoke as one.

“Running away is useless, girl.”

Bri yelled and started hurling orbs of water at them. The girl stood, ignoring the pain in her shoulder, and slammed her foot down twice. Chunks of the floor underneath the twins shot up, but they flipped backwards and missed both of their attacks.

They started to speak an incantation together, and Bri started running towards her. The twins raised their hands, and electric fireballs headed towards Bri and herself, and darkness consumed them.

The girl woke with a start. She had no clue where she was, again. She was lying in a bedroom, with all of the windows shut and a fire going in the grate. The heat had made the room stuffy. There was a woman sitting in a rocker near the fire, fast asleep. She recognized her as the woman who had called out to her in the street, but anything before that…

She had a horrible throbbing headache. Memories she didn’t have before were there. The dreams are memories! How? The headache worsened, and the word that was in her head felt important.

Mella.

Throb.

Wait, is this my name? Mella?

It felt right. Seeing as she didn’t have any other name, she would call herself Mella.

Mella tried to say her name out loud, only to end up coughing and wheezing from a really dry throat. How long have I been out? The coughing was enough to wake up the woman, who went into the next room and came back with a glass of water, which she gave to her.

“Relax, child. Deep breaths. You probably want to sit up.” She said. Mella sat up and drank the water, studying the woman next to her.

She wasn’t as old as she had appeared when she had first seen her. Her hair was white, but it was streaked with a lot of red and orange, giving the impression her head was on fire. The only thing that made her seem old was the worry lines around her gold eyes, which were staring at her intently.

She looks a little like Bri. But who was Bri? It made Mella’s head hurt even worse to think about it.

“Can you understand what I’m saying?” she asked.

Mella nodded. Why wouldn’t she understand her?

“How about now?” she said.

Mella nodded again. Why was she asking her this?

“What’s your name?” she asked.

“My name is Mella, I think.” Mella answered.

“Do you know what language you’re speaking, Mella?”

“No, I can’t tell the difference when you asked. What am I speaking? And who are you?” Mella was confused and slightly overwhelmed. She had woken up in an unfamiliar place again with a woman who started asking questions as soon as she could follow a conversation. She put a hand to her forehead. Her headache was steadily getting worse, but thankfully the name had stopped going through her mind.

The woman didn’t overlook this small action, or the flash of pain that probably went across her face as her head throbbed. She got up from her chair and went back into the other room, which must have been a kitchen. Mella heard clattering as she moved things around, until the woman came back with a teakettle, another cup, and a jar. The woman put the kettle over the fire and came back.

“Sorry for all of the questions, but you could see how we would react to a stranger appearing in Berna--”

“What’s Berna?” Mella couldn’t understand their reaction, because she had no clue where she was.

“Berna is the village you walked into child. It’s secluded enough that when anyone arrives here, it’s something of a novelty. My name is Myra, to answer another of your questions. I’m the leader of Berna. As for your question about the languages, you’re speaking Ivayan, the language of Ivadona.”

The kettle started whistling, and Myra went to go get it off the fire. Mella asked another question.

“Is it bad for me to be speaking Ivayan? Everyone freaked out when I asked for help.”

Myra was silent. She had opened the jar and put some of what appeared to be leaves in the bottom of the cup and poured the water on top. The room started to smell like mint. She walked back to Mella and gave the tea to her, taking the other cup in the process. Finally, Myra spoke again.

“There’s no easy way to say this, Mella. You’re in Rhydona, and no one is supposed to be speaking Ivayan. It’s forbidden. If the king and queen found out about you, since you’re obviously not from here, they would have the right to arrest you for sneaking in the country.”

Mella was shocked. There are forbidden languages? How? Why? I don’t understand.

Myra was still talking. “Mella? One last question and then you should drink that tea. Where were you before you came out of that cave?”

Mella’s answer was three simple words, three words that summed up everything that had happened and everything that she knew.

“I don’t know.” Mella said simply.

Myra was quiet. Mella spoke again. “What’s in this?” she asked, swirling the liquid around in the cup.

“It’s mainly a painkiller for your headache and something to help you sleep. You’ve been unconscious for three days, but you still need to rest a little bit longer. So drink up and go to sleep.”

Three days. What had she done to make herself unconscious for three whole days? Mella didn’t ask anything else and did what she was told. The tea was really sweet, with a lot of mint in it. She felt tired after drinking half of it, but Mella drank the rest and fell asleep.