Sorry, I've been in a really great mood lately. A somewhat hyper mood, really.
Anywho, today's teaser is again from Eventide. Natura and Grena discover than Ina has not been completely truthful with them, and that this whole Guardian thing is really up to question. This is very recently written, and crappy first draft edition. Though, it is quite decent for my usual first draft material.
Teaser Time
“Ina suspects we may not be the true descendants of the Guardians of Icarthia and Rivalon,” Natura said, her voice quiet. She felt…betrayed almost, but also a small bit relieved. If she wasn’t a Guardian, then there was nothing holding her here. Natura pushed the thought away; what would she do if she wasn’t a Guardian? Go home, and leave Ina to handle this on her own? No, she couldn’t do that.
“The amulets,” Ina said. “They may be copies, or stolen from the true family, sold, handed down the wrong family line, anything. Possessing an amulet is not a definite sign of a Guardian of the Light.”
“But you found us,” Grena said. “You sought us out. Why would you have done so if we weren’t descendants. And how do you know you’re a descendant? Maybe we’re all fakes!”
Ina’s already pale complexion whitened even more. She stared back down at the book in her lap, her silver-blonde hair falling over her face. She was retreating, and if she did there was no telling when they would get any more information out of her.
“Grena calm down,” Natura said.
“Calm down?” Grena asked, jumping down from the windowsill. “How can you tell me to calm down? I left two helpless little girls back in Rivalon who needed me for this! And now I may not even be the right woman? What if something has happened to my sisters when I was gone? I could have protected them, and this will have been for nothing!”
“Grena calm down!” Natura said, getting up from her bed and approaching her. “This isn’t helping!”
“I can’t believe you’re not as angry as I am about this!” Grena shouted. “You didn’t even want to come; we had to force you here. You could have stayed back in your perfect little life in your perfect little village, but no. Ina dragged you here, and now your life back home might never be the same!”
Natura stopped, like she’d hit a stone wall. She turned slowly to Ina, who was staring over at her and Grena. “Ina, do you really doubt us?”
“I do not want to doubt either of you,” she said. “Facts are facts, though. I know that I am truly descended; I possess the power of Knowing. The fact that I sought you two, out of anyone else in Ascensia, is reassuring but never definite. Unless you show anything that proves…” She stopped and sighed, looking back down at the book in front of her for a moment. “I am sorry, but I doubt.”
“This is just great,” Grena said. She sat back on the windowsill, her hands clutching the edge of it, her knuckles turning white. “Couldn’t you have told us this before we followed you across the continent?”
“It is said that each of the Guardians of the Light possessed a form of magic that is no longer known to the people of our world,” Ina explained. “In the time of the earliest known Guardians, those who forged the amulets, magic was a well known thing. Elemental magic was not the only power that roamed this land.
“Then the Great War rampaged Ascensia, pitting not only our countries against outside nations, but against each other. It was a great, evil thing; many, many honorable men and women lost their lives to this evil of war. The Guardians of the Light came forth, and of course you know the legend. When they forged the amulets, they placed their acute magical abilities in these amulets.
“When they pushed the evil from this land, and ended the Great War, they also eradicated much of the magic from this land. In some places as punishment – as with Senai – and in some places as a safeguard against future war. Only weakened elemental magic remained, as well as the magic held in the amulets; though, only a true descendent of the Guardians of the Light would have the ability to unlock this magic and wield it.”
“You keep talking in circles, Ina,” Grena said, resting her head in one of her hands where she sat on the windowsill. “What do you mean by all this?”
“She means,” Natura said, “that unless we show we can use the magic in the amulets, there is no way of knowing we are true Guardians.”
“Alright,” Grena said, standing up. “Tell me what I’m supposed to be able to do and I’ll prove it to you.”
Ina frowned and looked back at the book in her lap. “Not every country keeps the detailed records of the past as Fearn and Tundarus keep,” she said. “Even then, no country keeps more recorded than it must, so only the history of that country will be recorded. I am doing the best that I can to find out, to know…”
Natura looked from Ina to Grena. Ina’s face was still as white as snow, and she looked almost like she was shaking. Grena, on the other hand, was glaring at Ina and Natura suspected that if she could, she would be growling like a wolf facing its prey. She clenched and unclenched her fists as she stared Ina down, and it would only be a matter of moments before she would go as far as to attack poor Ina.
“Grena,” Natura said softly, going to her and placing a hand on her shoulder. “Calm down–”
“I thought we already went through this!” she barked. “I’m not going to calm down!”
“Grena,” Natura said again. “You need to leave; you need time to let this sink in before you do anything.”
She wrenched her shoulder from under Natura’s hand. “Don’t you feel betrayed?” she demanded. “Look what she’s done to us! Look at all that has happened. We shouldn’t have had to go through it, and now we might not even be descendants!”
Natura took a daring step between Grena and Ina, hoping she would be enough to stop Grena from tearing Ina apart if she felt like it. “But we still might be descendants; it’ll just take time to be sure. Now you’ve been protecting me, and now I’m protecting you. Go and think about this before you do something you’ll regret.”
“I don’t appreciate being lied to,” she said through gritted teeth. “And you shouldn’t either.” She went back to the window and pulled herself all the way through this time.
Natura went straight to Ina’s bed and started picking up the books scattered over it and placing them in neat piles on the floor, as well as straightening the other piles already on the floor. She took the book from Ina’s lap – Ina was still yet to budge from her frozen position, staring fearfully at where Grena had been only moments ago
“Hey,” she said softly. She sat down on the bed next to Ina. “She doesn’t mean it; just give her a little time to cool off. Get some rest, now.”
Ina nodded slowly and inched her way down on her bed until she was lying flat. Natura went to her own bed but kept looking back to Ina, checking on her. Every time she looked, it was always the same: Ina lying motionless, staring into the empty space beside her bed, unblinking, unflinching.
End Tease
I'm really pleased with this bit. It throws a big pile of rocks in the middle of the road for Ina and the Guardian hunt, but it also gives Natura an opportunity to grow up a bit. Plus it's going to make it easier to bring Grena back in a way that settles her relationship with Natura. They need to get along better in order to help a much later plot point.
Hope it was an enjoyable read, and not too atrocious.
-Lauren-
0 comments:
Post a Comment