Chapter 001

Every Star in the Sky

Moonlight, how fitting.

Dozens of street lights flickered as the road seemed to extend forever and ever. The rustling bushes, the looming trees, the shadows roaming the land; everything wanted to crawl out and swallow anything in sight. The rain descended relentlessly tonight with the tempest wind raging like it was trying to blow away our capital.

Only the moonlight showed the way to survival.

Amongst the feelings of dread hid a real beast. At least, that’s what a lone girl thought. From a spectator, they would only see a girl dashing down the road. But she could feel it—she knew it. Her drenched, moonlit white hair swayed in the wind like fans cheering for a bloodbath that they called “entertainment.”

No sound was produced, no footsteps except her own, no growling except her breath—nothing. Nothing was there, nothing followed her. No foul stenches, no gnarly odors, nothing existed behind her but the darkness created by the moonlight.

And yet… no matter how far and quick she sprinted, it was right on her tail. She ran, she tumbled, she collapsed, but she rose up again, covered ignoring the stinging pain from her knees and elbows.

To any onlooker casually passing by, you would think it was just an exhausted girl who was out on a midnight jog. But there were none, nobody else. Just her and the one in pursuit.

Just a bit more. The final stretch, that was all. That was everything she needed. She somehow managed to endure, even with her quivering legs. Only now at the finish did she feel the weight of pain. Her house was within reach, she was there.

Except, it wasn’t. Then, it caught up to her. She could only look back as the darkness clasped onto her and began dragging her back. She gripped her clothes, and held her breath as she tripped, diving into the darkness.

And then… she woke up

Vicori

The Ailvan World

Lina

What the hell? Why am I here, no—there are others. The scene switched to one of them laying on their bed, as still as a statue while the rest of the scene was hidden by an abyss of darkness. Another person seemed to be intrigued by the midnight sky. Through these scenes, my ghostly self leaned forward in fascination and a couple more people came into view but none of their current actions intrigued me.

Until someone appeared in my room out of the darkness of the corner. The darkness rose off my dresser and out of my closet to form a person in a cloak. The moonlight entered my room, and its glowing illumination danced across my pale face. My short, white hair shined in the glistening light. My room was covered in darkness, everything but my bed. Then the scene faded to black.

"Hey, Lina." said a voice,

"Linaaaa?" Repeated the voice.

"LINAAA!" Shouted the voice, with my face twitching, begging for this voice to shut up and leave me alone.

I jolted awake from the sudden shock. My mind twirled around as my eyes shot open, blinded by the light piercing through the window. I raised my head off the desk and slowly became conscious.

"wha- what?" I grumbled drowsily paying no attention to my surroundings.

Damnit! That seemed important

“Honestly girl, I know you need your beauty sleep but save that for later. We have a lot to get through right now,” sighed Shikka crossing her arms. My friend Shikka was standing in front of my desk. Her long wheat-white hair was braided but it didn't hide her long pointy ear like normal. Her red eyes stabbed me with an intimidating glare, piercing my soul. I leaned back into my chair, but she kept staring at me.

“Wait, what did I just see?” I wondered out loud. That dream I had... it was still as clear as day, but none of it made sense. I decided to turn a blind eye to Shikka's lecture about staying awake to focus. Seeing other people in a dream is no common occurrence, but I saw people I haven't seen before. Not only that, I was there too. How peculiar...

Suddenly, Shikka's face lit up.

“What, did you see your crush in a dream?” Asked Shikka leaning closer to try and get an answer out of me.

“Uh - no! Of course not! How could you even think that?” I responded at extreme speeds with my mind trying to calculate every way to avoid continuing this conversation. What a handful...

Shikka pestered me like a monkey flying for the first time. While her attempt was interrupting my train of thought, it was nice to have a laugh in this cold world.

"Do you think I could hear your answer too?” Asked my brother Reno who was sitting right next to me. His fire-red hair cut short this time after it had previously gone below his shoulders. He had his mysterious, sly expression on like he knew exactly what you were thinking about and when you were going to make your move. But I was with him since he was born, as the older sibling, I trusted him 100%. Even though he got on my nerves any chance he got.

“Damnit Reno, you are supposed to be on my side,” I muttered, plugging my ears to block out his pleads. I let out a long-suffering sigh. One of them is more than enough on their own. Put those two together and you have enough annoyance for a lifetime. Reno had always looked at me like I was in trouble in every situation possible, and to be honest it was nice knowing you weren't alone. However, he loved to cross the line and remained there for almost every moment of my life. Shikka was even worse, sometimes I feel like I'm her comic relief and not her actual friend.

It's like taking care of two dogs that never leave you alone.

Still, they had their limits and if they didn't, I would have gone insane a long time ago. I eyeballed our surroundings and tried to locate anyone else in the room beside us three. Even though using a locate spell would be more accurate and efficient, I trusted my senses to do their job because it's so much easier. After confirming it was just the three of us left in the room, I could finally speak to Reno.

“So, did father say anything useful?” I asked attempting not to arouse any suspicion while gathering my thoughts. Anyone could be there. With the Prince and Princess in public, anybody could be lurking in the shadows, waiting to strike. You could never be too careful.

“All he did was give me an annoyed look,” replied Reno giving me the shoulder shrug. Although his disappointment was nowhere near mine. Reno was among the new budding talents in our world. Unfortunately, I couldn't say the same for myself. I hated this, our magic studies were hard enough and now the final exam is near impossible. Well, I can't blame him. He has to lead our army, manage a clan, and teach us. He also recently decided to try and convince our leaders' decision on what to do with humans. So he now has to hold conferences in Marinav.

“Lost in your thoughts again, Lina?” asked my best friend Shikka.

“Well, what's your opinion on opening the trials for the humans again?” I asked with interest. The Trials are a stage we prepared for humans. A set of tests that will show your true colors and abilities. But it took so much preparation and time that we didn't have. That's not even the worst part. It's the fact that humans have this thing called pride, when they are summoned they all think they are the protagonist of some novel. Then they all run off and die because they believe in an invisible shield from god called "plot armor."

Anyways, it was a hassle and an unnecessary one at that. Still, I hoped Shikka could shine some light on the darkness.

“It'll be annoying, but I see how the Supreme Ones are thinking,” replied Shikka. “Although sabotaging them would be very fun, I will have a lot of new toys to play with!

“Sometimes your more mysterious than the Supreme Ones themselves,” I responded disgustedly. Looks like I got my hopes up. Although that one was my fault, I should have never thought she was going to say something useful in her current mood.

“Watching them struggle will be very amusing for me.” whispered Shikka, “until I get bored and kill them all.”

“Have fun, I guess,” I whispered back.

Sitting up, I hurried and grabbed all of my supplies. I began to head in my direction again while Shikka just stood there staring at me. Once I looked back, she was gone just like a fragment of my imagination.

“Freaky,” I whispered.

While it was unfair, complaining is useless. I needed to start helping my Ailva clan prepare for the humans. Our job is to weed out the weak. Those who cannot survive will perish. We are having a meeting at 17:00; as I look at the clock, I dreaded 17:30.

“Oh, shit!” I screamed as I dashed outside through the woods towards the clan's castle. “Well, I will catch you later Reno.”

But, I had this odd feeling that someone was watching me as I sprinted to my destination. This feeling bugged me so much, that I couldn't admire the bright star shower in the sky.

I am so dead. When Father finds out that I arrived at the meeting late, he'll kill me.

The trials were going to be starting soon and we had to plan everything fast. I had a sense of rush but here I was... Just blanking out, staring into space. The last-minute dread was eating away at me as the pile of papers began stacking up on my desk. I was in my room, with one foggy window, white walls, and a marble floor. No furniture except for my chair and desk.

Why couldn't we have started earlier?

For now, scanning through each human's strength would be ideal for making this go quicker. The older you get, the more strength you had so I chucked the list of little children out the window. The papers fluttered in the air as the breeze picked them up like they each sprouted wings. Maybe one day, the wind take me wherever it wanted to go. No burdens, no responsibilities, and most of all, no Reno and Shikka. Speaking of burdens, the stack of papers was now taller than me.

Looks like I should get started, what should be a good rule of thumb? hmmm

The list that my subordinates printed out for me was full of meaningless words. But they had some useful stuff, such as the amount of Gyra they currently had. I sighed taking a good look at the hundreds of pages that were gathering dust on my desk. Gyra is basically the ability to break physics, it's what humans called magic but a lot more complex.

This is going to be a long night.

Yeah sure why not, nope not her, not him either, maybe him?

The ceiling was just as white as ever, the paint was drying pretty quickly too. The night was so quiet I could hear the bugs outside in the woods. Although, I yawned so wide that I could easily eat my chair. My head lay lifeless on the desk, hoping that this nightmare would be over soon.

The trials are an intricate process that I really detest. A Gyra artifact that goes as the "encircling void" connects two different worlds. Fortunately, we can use this to bring humans here and send humans to other places. The artifact is such a smart, easy idea that other races we haven't seen before would use it too.

But we have a limited supply of them meaning I have to cut the fat and choose the best humans possible for the trials.

The door creaked open and Shikka strolled passed the threshold only to slam her hands straight on my desk causing some papers to fly off.

"Hey, are you alive in there?" asked Shikka as a slight pain appeared on my forehead. How could she be annoying and caring at the same time?

Leave me alone! I would rather do work than listen to you yapper on.

"Oooh! That's the task I wanted! Do you think I could do it instead?" asked Shikka. She was like a puppy begging for dinner. I guess I'll bite.

"Sure, I love it too but I will give it to you because I am so nice," I responded. My legs running in place like I was a car starting an engine.

"Sure thing! See you tomorrow." She smiled and began shuffling over to my side of the desk.

SAVED! I could kiss you right not Shikka. No overnighter for me! I'm sorry about everything I've thought about you, you are actually a good person!

"Okay! Thanks, no takesy-backsies." I responded. I slammed my chair back, knocking stacks of papers onto the floor. I leaped over the desk and zoomed straight out of the door before Shikka could even respond.

Today was going well, too well. I was on my way home, lightly trudging across the grass. I approached the dark thicket, it was as creepy as ever. The wind sent gusts in multiple directions, the shadows seem to want to crawl out from the shade of the trees. But, you would get used to it like me after you ran this path every day. The leaves block almost all the light making it pitch-black inside of the forest.

Out of nowhere, an ominous shadow figure appears leaping at me straight from the treetops. His attack is so swift and sudden, that I barely managed to raise my arms and block it. But he swung around using the wind on his legs to do a mid-air 360. With my guard still up, I couldn't react to his swift, fluid movement. He used the wind's boost of momentum to launch a devastating upside-down back kick. However, Father told me to be prepared. Since the welcoming event is approaching, it would be a perfect chance for an attack - right when we need to protect so many humans.

I had a pre-casted Gyra spell sinking me into the ground. In an instant, I bent down from the intense gravity onto all fours, barely managing to dodge their kick. With the perfect opening, I struck my fist right into their stomach. However, all I found myself hitting was an afterimage. His fist arced towards me, and there was a sudden flash of pain before I found myself waking up on the dirty grass moments later.

I couldn't hold a finger to them, maybe if I was the predator, things would have been different but not today, not right now. I needed a plan, I had to figure out their objective and work with that while stalling for time. I looked up in fear, all of my emotions pouring out. First, I had to calm down. I wouldn't be any use to them dead. As I gasped for air, my lower body began feeling numb. A dull, sciatic ache had been left in my right arm which blocked his attack. It felt like a sharp-tooth creature eating me inside-out.

"Wh-who are you? What do you want?" I asked with my throat still throbbing from their attack.

"How naïve. You should realize that nobody will answer that. But this is the role I have, I guess I should at least answer your plead." muttered the shadowy person clearly pitying me. They were wearing broken black robes which looked like a rag all over them. Shadows oozed out of their rag suggesting some sort of defensive Gyra was casted. Their voice was changed using Gyra to a much deeper and menacing tone. "Tomorrow, when the humans arrive, I want you to throw this Gyra bead straight at the rift gate."

They handed me a mysterious object, a Gyra bead. A Gyra bead contains a spell that will activate when the user wants it. I learned all about it in Father's lectures. Who knew his boring lectures would help me, even a little bit. However, I couldn't tell what Gyra spell it contained. I was outraged, not at this person, but myself. How could I have fallen for an attack as simple as this?

"Now head my words. Do not tell anything or anyone about our encounter, do not tell anyone about the Gyra bead. Use the spell bead properly like how you were taught. Do that and you shall live. If you don't then we will kill you." announced the ominous voice.

Then, they disappeared into the shadows just as fast as they appeared.