The Reborn

C H A P T E R O N E

"I thank the Gods for you each night, to fly me high when my light bites. I thank them for the ground below, to keep me hidden and to protect my soul. I thank them for the sky above to supply me light and to show me, love. I will be forever indebted to them- all my life and whatever else."

What a stupid prayer. The Gods don't do anything for us. We live on this shitty piece of land because of them, and for everyone here to worship them as they do just shows how naive these people are.

"Why must we say that prayer before mealtime every day?" My best friend Xander groans.

I pick up my fork and push the little piece of rotten fish and soggy beans around my plate, "Because if these people don't have something to worship or some higher being to thank then this whole system will fall apart."

In our community, every meal is eaten as a group. It helps us ration food better so everyone gets equal helpings. We gather in the main hall and eat with the same people at the same time every day.

It's quite sad actually, the people here believe this is a way to live but I know better. To work all day and to eat rotten food at night? I mean come on, there must be a better life than that. I moved here when I was seven. I don't remember anything before that and neither does Xander. They take your memories when you move to the outskirts and you never get them back.

I was kicked off the mainland because my parents died and I wasn't "gifted". At least that's what I told them. I remember waking up in a room with a bunch of other kids around my age- some younger and some older. I felt like my heart had been ripped out and I remember feeling and knowing that I had lost my parents, however, I could feel their memory fading away. I held a family picture in my hand of my mother, father, and me with a note on the back.

Never let them see. You are the most special little girl that I know but they don't need to know that. Make them believe you are a dull, you will know one day why. You are so loved my dear, please do this last thing for me.

-Your mother who loves you more than life itself

That note haunts me to this day but I did everything she asked. My parents left me a ring as well that I refuse to ever take off. It's a beautiful ring with an onyx jewel. Somehow it's managed to grow as I do and although I don't remember them every time I look at that ring I feel like they're there.

I never told anyone about how I ended up there- except Xander. Xander and I are almost the same. His parents died and he came here except he didn't know he was gifted at the time. The difference is my aunt lives on the outskirts with me and he doesn't have anyone except for us. We got here around the same time but he was one year older. I never had any friends growing up, so I would always watch Xander from afar. He didn't have any friends either so I was always hopeful we might be friends.

I was walking home one day when I had heard screaming. It was Xander. I ran over and I saw Xander getting tackled by two guards from the mainland as he cried.

Xander was gifted, like me. I remember being so happy forgetting that gifted children weren't allowed to exist here anymore. At the time I had very little control over any of my power except persuasion.

I ran over to the guards and tapped on them. They looked down at me bewildered by my choice to intervene.

"What are you doing here?" I asked in my sweet, manipulative little tone.

"We are here to take Xander Irvine back to the mainland because of his use of magic," they replied simultaneously.

"No, you were here to ask Xander if he was getting home safe," I tell them both staring them both dead in the eyes.

"We were here to just ask Xander if he was getting home safe," one of them repeat in a conversational tone like they didn't just tackle this nine-year-old.

"That's nice of you, we are walking home together," I reply looking at Xander and the guards are knocked out of their trance-like state. They nod their heads before walking away as if nothing happened.

He was so bewildered that I had done that and at the time he had no idea he was gifted. Before he was living with us he was living at the commons like other orphans. I ran home and took him straight to my aunt. I remember being so happy there was someone else like me. She sees the future and so when I ran through the front door she already knew what had happened.

She slapped me and yelled for threatening my life as well as hers by taking a stranger to her home. She's a hard woman but it comes from a place of love. She ended up letting Xander stay for the night which turned into a week, which turned into him still being here today- 10 years later. I swear she loves Xander more than me sometimes.

Aunt Melara has taught Xander and me everything we know about using our magic and concealing it. Xander would have been fine staying on the mainland when his parents died if he knew about his gift at the time but since he was already nine when the guards found him he would have been killed. His gift of strength is deemed not a threat.

Every kid gets tested at around the age of six because at that age you are unable to hide anything from the test. The test determines whether you're gifted and if your gift is a danger or not. The kids that have dangerous gifts are killed on the spot and the rest of the kids with harmless gifts simply live their lives on the mainland with every luxury you could think of. As you can predict the ungifted get sent to the outskirts to slave their life away.

After you reach the age of eight the test no longer works and so if they find an untested and gifted individual older than eight they just kill them for safety matters. It's a stupid system but that's how the mainlanders work.

I've come to learn my gifts are a danger. That's why I've never left this stupid island. If I leave and they found me I would be good as dead.