Chapter 1

“I can fight, Grandpa!”

“Etoile, we don’t have time for this," he said softly.

He put his arm around me, and I buried my face into his soft fur.

“I can fight with the others! I am not that different… I can do it,” I sobbed.

"Etoile…"

It wasn’t fair. I was one of them.

“We need to hurry."

He looked at me, but where I’d expected to see the stern expression he’d use when I disobeyed him, I only saw sadness.

“Everyone is helping, even Mirage, and she is younger than me…”, I sobbed.

It wasn’t fair. I could help even if I didn’t know magic. This was my home, even if…even if I didn’t look like everyone else. A loud rumble suddenly shook the ground, and the barrier protecting our town erupted into a myriad of sparks. The nearby building exploded in white flames, and Grandpa threw himself over me as stone splinters whizzed above our heads.

"Grandpa! The gate!”

Mirage stumbled to the ground as she fell next to us.

“Mirage!”

She shouldn’t have teleported that far, she wasn’t strong enough. Smoke filled the air as another explosion shook the ground.

“The gate! They are breaching it!"

She started to cough, and I glanced at Grandpa, but he only shook his head.

“No, let’s go! We can hold them back!”, Mirage cried.

She grabbed my hand, and I put my hand on the hilt of the short sword Uncle Pierre had given me on my birthday, trying to summon the courage that was fading from my heart. If only I were like the others… But I didn’t have time to dwell on it. Suddenly, I felt so light, and a soft blue light bursting with those flashing sigils I’d never been able to understand wrapped around us. I managed to catch a glimpse of Grandpa casting the spell before the world disappeared.

I heard Mirage hissing and screaming, and I gazed around in a haze. We were standing on the shore of the lake, watching our home burn on the horizon.

"M-Mirage?" I murmured.

She grabbed my hand as angry tears stained her face.

“No! We need to go back! We need to go back!”, she screamed into the night.

“Listen to me carefully, my children. We don’t have much time."

We looked up to see a golden orb floating just above our heads.

“Take us back!” she hissed at it.

I’d never seen her so angry.

“Listen to me for once. Time is precious."

“Grandpa…”

I tried to be brave and hold back my tears as I heard how strained his voice was.

“Mirage, Etoile, I need to ask something of you that I wish I’d never had to, but I don’t have any other choice."

“Grandpa…?”

Mirage pricked her ears, watching the orb.

“Go and bring help. I will guide you for as long as I can."

“But Grandpa, Cit’de’lun is so far away. Even if we reach it...”

“...it will be too late," Mirage concluded.

“No, I am sending you further than that. The evil we are fighting is not from this world, and I believe nothing here can stop it."

“Further…?”

“Follow the light, and I will explain to you what I can."

A golden ray shot from the orb, creating a path across the shore as it disappeared beneath the water.

“Hurry, we don’t have much time!”

The orb floated to the edge of the water and disappeared beneath the surface, and we hesitantly stepped closer. There was a tunnel of light leading down beneath the lake, protecting us from the water. I glanced at Mirage, and she nodded, and we followed the orb.

“You’ve asked me where you come from, and I’ve never lied when I told you you fell from the sky, even though you never believed me when you got older."

Why did he have to bring it up, especially when Mirage was here? She would just tease me. She was the worst. She had a black spot on her tail, but a spotted tail was at least better than no tail at all. I glanced at her, half expecting she would shove it in my face, but when my tear-stained eyes met hers, she only whispered,

“She is one of us."

“Of course," Grandpa’s voice echoed from the orb. “But she wasn’t born here, and our only hope is to look for help in the place where she came from."

I…could help? Even if I wasn’t one of them?

“How?” Mirage asked.

The orb halted, shining a light on the path ahead. We had reached the bottom of the lake, and on the path ahead of us was something lying in the sand. It was massive, bigger than Grandpa’s house with its enormous library, and he was one of the greatest WindSingers in the West.

“What... What is that?”

I squinted my eyes, trying to distinguish the unfamiliar shape.

“You arrived in this, and I’ve spent years trying to understand its workings. I wanted to tell you when…"

The orb suddenly flickered, and I could hear the barrier protecting us from the water begin to crack.

“Run!”

The orb bolted to the house. Mirage grabbed my hand and ran after it as the tunnel began to collapse. I slammed the door shut just as the water crashed against it.

"Hurry!"

The orb flickered in front of us, and we ran after it through the corridors until we arrived at a strange-looking room filled with flashing lights and sigils I had never seen before.

"Grandpa!" Mirage cried as the orb began to fade in the air above us.

"Children…take care of…each other. Ecrou will guide you… I am…”

With the last bits of fading mana, the golden orb rushed to one of the strange boxes and dissolved itself into a small wooden squirrel standing on it.

“Grandpa!”

I started to sob, not caring anymore that Mirage would see me like this, when I heard the familiar voice of Ecrou.

“Mirage, Etoile, sit down and do as I tell you. We are not out of danger yet."

I heard Mirage crying next to me. He was the toy Grandpa had made for us when we were kids, but we’d kept fighting over him, so he’d taken him away. The room suddenly shook violently, and Ecrou tumbled to the ground.

“Girls, we need to hurry!"

He leapt back on the box and pressed a button as the house jolted violently again.

“Sit down!”

A strange hum filled the room, and more sigils appeared on the wall in front of us. We clambered into the strange soft seats standing by the boxes, and I glanced at Mirage, but she looked as confused as I was.

“Hold on” Ecrou squeaked as a strange force pressed us back into the seats.