Star Born | Featured

ONE || Stepmothers & Swords

Soundtrack: Empire of Angels from Two Steps from Hell

A crimson canyon cut through the snowy tundra of the girl's skin, jagged flesh crumbling away to a river of red.

The girl in the rapier's looking-glass remnant stared up at her, eyes twin wells of endless ebony. Sighing, Carmen let her hand drop from the ragged wound on her cheek, fingers reaching towards the crumpled flyer and coaxing open the crinkled mess of black and white.

PUBLIC NOTICE

Visitors from the Astrum Base of the planet Astra will be visiting the Terrum colony in three weeks' time to seek a new scout for the fight against the Lusion race. All inhabitants of Terra aged sixteen to twenty-one are invited to compete for the position.

The competition will begin at 18:00 at the Colony Center. It will include (1) an obstacle course, (2) a laser duel, (3) an interview for mental aptitude, and (4) a rapier duel. The number of competitors will decrease with each round.

Competitors do not have to sign up. Though the hosts will provide weapons, competitors are encouraged to bring their own.

The three current scouts, Gavin Restendris, Juvia Restendris, and Casper Conduir, will host the competition.

Four pictures decorated the bottom of the flyer—the three scouts and Seth Linnere, the thirty-year-old blown to bits by Lusion lasers.

"You're going to end up like him, like Seth Linnere! The Lusions have about a dozen scouts—what do the humans have, four?"

"Eight! Two resource managers, two medics, and four scouts!"

"Yes, and the scouts are all under twenty years old!"

Tears blurred her vision, hot needles pricking the edges of her eyes as she swiped the back of her hand across her face.

A tear streaked down her right cheekbone, salt stinging against blood, wettening the leftmost picture.

Casper Conduir's picture.

Even through the printed shades of gray she could picture his waves of hazel hair, his glittering dark eyes, his pink lips.

A tender smile stole over Carmen's lips as, with the tip of her finger, she dabbed away the wetness staining the youth's picture.

A rags-to-riches boy. An orphan, his parents killed on Astra. A young man who, at the astonishing age of seventeen, rose to the position of scout on the Astrum Base.

But a cold scowl swept over her features, frost coating her expression as she recalled Casper's staggering swarms of admirers, his flabbergasting amount of fan networks.

They did not see his status as an orphan as anything more than one more addition to his already-impressive arsenal of desirable traits. They didn't see the web of emotional scars all orphans bore; they didn't feel the unrelenting urge to look over their shoulders—

Fatigue crashed over her as she staggered to her feet, staring at the shattered remnants of the rapier.

"I want to go to the tournament! I can bring the blade Mom and Dad gave me. Aunt Esther—"

"No!"

Aunt Esther lunged forwards, hands wrapping around the base of the sword. Carmen screamed as her aunt tore the sword from her grasp.

"NO! Give it back!"

Esther wrenched the blade backwards, and Carmen gasped as pain exploded through her face. One hand clasped over her right cheekbone as she crashed against the wall.