by Kaitlyn Hoyt
“During the darkest of times, her presence provided the illumination he was seeking. She brought something new to his life. Before her, he spent every day writing and documenting the tribes every detail. She broke his routine and made him live for something for the first time in a long time. She became a symbol for light. Even without knowing her past, she adjusted and thrived.
“Before her, Maitrec’s flame was quickly dwindling. She brought his flickering flame to its intended brightness. The flickers left and all that remained was a strong flame burning bright. It remained bright until their deaths, but their flame will always burn bright. It’s written in our town’s history, where it will forever remain.
“Eventually Abornazine got married and had a daughter, my grandma. At twenty, she had my mom. Kayleena. My mom was always a little different compared to everyone else. When we’re born, we’re given a specific job. The elders in my tribe are pretty good at determining what each person is meant to do with their life, but my mom was a surprise. They couldn’t place her in any one job, so for the first time, they let her choose. Her choice was to not choose. She wanted to try everything, and she did before she found her love for art. She loved making jewelry.
“She could literally make something beautiful out of nothing. She was stubborn, determined, and fearless. She wasn’t afraid of trying something new even if it brought failure. With failure, you learn. She said that nothing could be considered a failure, because you learned one way not to do it. She was a glass half-full type of person. If you looked at something from a negative angle, she’d make you look in the opposite direction. She had a way of changing people for the better. However, the change was so subtle, that you didn’t even realize that she changed you at all until later. She was incredible. I was always amazed at how well she got along with everyone and I literally mean everyone.
“She was the epitome of a flame and represented our family well. She brought brightness to everyone. She provided a constant illumination for those around her. Even those wallowing in the darkness were not immune to her flame.”
Liam stops talking and looks toward me. I can see the sadness in his eyes. I lean into him and ask him to continue. “My mom met my dad, Axsher, when she was twenty. He was banished from his home tribe. She would never tell us why. In fact, I never even knew the guy. After I was born, he left. He didn’t leave any clues as to his whereabouts. I don’t think mom even knew why he left. One day, he just disappeared.
“Bragden knew him, but briefly. I don’t think he remembers anything specific about him though. When I was six or seven, Pavander, asked Valdus to begin to work with me. He concluded that I would probably end up being a dream-walker like him. I don’t know how the elders were always able to determine what our mage powers would be, but they were usually correct. Occasionally, you’d hear of a story where they got it wrong, but those were rare.
“Bragden was another one of the mages that the elders weren’t sure about. They didn’t give him the option to choose like my mother though. Every day while I was training with Valdus, he was training too. He was building up his strength. That’s why he’s so big. Since they weren’t sure what his powers would be, they prepared him in other ways. Bragden became the best fighter in our tribe. People were afraid to oppose him. He was one of those people whom you always wanted to remain on their good side.
“After all of my dream sessions with Valdus, I would come home and my mom would have made multiple pieces of jewelry and have dinner prepared and ready. I don’t know how she did it, but she did. Bragden would come in from his training sessions before me and would literally eat everything. Mom always made a side portion for me. I came home every night and found a small plate of food in the refrigerator.
“I remember being so jealous when mom pulled Bragden aside and handed him his pendant. Growing up, that’s one of the moments you look forward to. Even though it happens when you’re ten, it’s one of the first steps to becoming a man. After you get your pendant, you get to start training. Bragden was already doing that. He was always one step ahead of me.
“One of the other things about my mom was that she was great with animals. They flocked to her side. Our house always had random birds with broken wings or rabbits with injured feet. She would nurse them back to health, and then release them back into the wild. We also had two horses. She rode Ava, while Bragden and I rode Ranger.
“One day while I was working with Valdus and Bragden was training, mom decided that she wanted to go out riding. She used to ride almost every day when she was younger. When she had us, she had to give it up to take care of us. I came home that day after my dream sessions and found the house empty. Pieces of jewelry were thrown about the kitchen table, but dinner wasn’t prepared. Bragden was walking through the house looking for her. I came in right as he was heading out. Mom wasn’t home and neither one of us knew where she was.
“The first place we looked was the barn. We instantly knew that she was out when we saw Ava missing. Bragden and I went running down the trial that we knew she frequently rode on. We found her unconscious on the trail about a mile in. Ava was nowhere in sight. I rushed back into town and got Valdus. He was…I guess, he still is, our tribe leader. He told Bragden and me to go home while they worked on mom. Bragden and I went and stayed with our neighbor.
“The next morning we found out that she was paralyzed from the waist down. There was nothing they could do about it. Our tribe didn’t have any healers at the time. Healers are incredibly rare. It’s a very coveted power. Bragden and I spent months after her accident helping her. Like you, she doesn’t like looking weak. She didn’t feel like her accident was a bad thing. She looked at it as a flicker in the flame or at least she did at first.
“It was then that she fully told me about the flame. She sat Bragden and me down one night in the kitchen and turned all the lights off. She lit a single candle and told us to just watch the flame for a few moments.
“At the time, we thought she was crazy, but we listened. I watched as the candle flame danced around, casting shadows on Bragden’s and mom’s faces. The slight draft in the room caused the flame to flicker dramatically. A candle flame doesn’t stay still for long. There’s always some invisible force acting against it. After a few minutes, she started talking.
“She told us how before the accident, her flame was burning bright. It brightened with each of our births. She had everything she wanted in life: two sons on their destined paths and a love for what she was doing with her life. The accident was just a flicker in the flame. It was just an obstacle that she had to overcome in order for the flame to burn bright again. ‘With each passing day, the flame will get brighter,’ she said. Being seven, I didn’t really understand the importance of what she was telling me.
“It wasn’t until I was ten and got my pendant necklace that I started to think about everything she told me all those years ago. On my tenth birthday, Valdus gave me the day off and mom sat me down at the table and gave me a small box. I knew that my protector’s pendant was inside. I ripped open that box so fast. Inside was a long necklace with a simple flame pendant attached. It was perfect. When I put on the necklace, it felt like pins and needles were spreading throughout my body. I didn’t know what was happening. Mom started talking, trying to distract me from the slight pain. After a couple of seconds, the pain went away. It all exited my body and settled in the pendant. I don’t know how to describe it exactly, but I knew from that day, everything was going to change. Nothing would be the same.”
Liam pauses and looks off to the far side of the room. He clears his throat before he turns toward me again. I see the gloss in his gaze. He’s trying to hide his sadness. I squeeze his hand, telling him that I’m still here. I don’t know if Liam has ever told anyone this story before. I know how easy it is to get lost in a memory. He gives me a small smile and continues.
“Bragden and I would take turns helping mom. She would try to do everything she did before, but it was difficult. She
couldn’t go upstairs. At this point, Bragden was thirteen. Though he was young, Bragden was already bigger than everyone else. He would carry Mom upstairs every night and then back down every morning. I started preparing the meals. She would help me, but it wasn’t the same. I remember that every night Bragden would bring Mom into the living room and we’d all sit around the fire. I would sit across from her on the couch and read to her. I would read whatever she gave me for the night. Mom would always tell me that she loved hearing my voice. It didn’t matter what I was reading, as long as she could listen to me speak.
“I could tell that she was starting to get frustrated in herself. Her flame wasn’t getting any brighter. In fact, its illumination was dwindling. We didn’t know what we could do to help. She tried to put on a strong face around us, but we knew. She wasn’t the same. The accident changed her.
“A month after I turned ten, I was training with Tranton when I received the news that my mother had committed suicide. My strong, fearless mother took her own life. She swallowed a bunch of her pain medications and left a note explaining how sorry she was, but she couldn’t take it anymore. She couldn’t stand the pitied looks from the neighbors. She couldn’t stand seeing us worry over her. She couldn’t stand everyone wanting to help her. All her life, she’d been in control and suddenly she wasn’t. She didn’t know how to handle the sudden change. She even said in the note that her flame was dying and it was time to just extinguish it. Apparently, she couldn’t prolong the inevitable. I’ve never told anyone that she committed suicide before. I always thought suicide was the weak way to go. How could I think that when the strongest person I knew made that decision?” Liam shakes his head. I can tell that right now, he’s not with me. He’s inside his memories. “Even now, I still don’t know what I think about it.
“Besides the note, she left Bragden and me both tiny wooden boxes full of random items. Mine had this leather bracelet, my great grandfather’s pocket watch, and Rozene’s wedding ring. I have no idea what was in Bragden’s box. He never told me, and I’ve never asked.
“Bragden and I didn’t have any family to go to, so Valdus took us in. Valdus had previous adopted this mage, Ezra. Ezra was twelve when he came and lived with Valdus and his wife. We did not get along. I don’t know what it was, but Ezra hated me and worshipped Valdus. I don’t think he liked that he was no longer the center of attention all the time. He had to compete for the amount of attention he thought he deserved. As the years passed, Ezra’s disdain for me grew. I tried everything I could to change his feelings toward me, but nothing worked.
“Bragden started training every day. We drifted apart. We both handled mom’s death in different ways. Bragden took his anger out during his training sessions. He was always angry while I was the quiet one. I didn’t express myself like he did. I trained to further my magic. Valdus and I worked on strengthening my dream-walking abilities. I hadn’t come into my powers yet, but I was already showing signs. I could control my dreams. Inside of my dreams, I could literally manipulate whatever I wanted. If I imagined a certain location, I could go there during a dream. If I envisioned a specific scene or event, I would dream about it. It was amazing.
“I wanted my flame to be as bright as it could be. Just because mom’s flame dwindled, didn’t mean mine should. She always wanted us to thrive and she did everything to make sure that we did. I would work with Valdus in the morning, and then I would train in the evenings. One day during training, Tranton had me fighting with weapons with Ezra. I was so done dealing with all of his crap. Neither one of us were taking it easy on the other. I was fifteen at the time, and he was seventeen.
“I won’t go into all of the details, but we both took our anger of the situation we were in on each other. When I felt his blade swipe across my face, I pushed even harder. I could feel the blood dripping down my face, but I continued fighting. I wanted to knock that smug look off his arrogant face.
“We both continued to push each other…almost to our breaking points. We could hear Tranton yelling at us to stop, but we both ignored him. I spit the blood that was dripping down my face at him as I swung my sword out. I watched as my blade swept out and hit him. When I saw the blood start spilling out of the wound, I stopped. I dropped my sword and left.
“I left training. I left Rockwood. I just left. I walked out of that training room and never looked back. The only thing tying me to that town was Bragden and Bragden and I had been drifting apart. I barely spoke to him. We exchanged passing glances, but that was all. I gathered up a small sack of my belongings and I walked out of that town. I needed to get away for a while.
“I got into some bad things. I was big. I knew that I was stronger than most humans and I took advantage of that. I got into drugs. Got in trouble with alcohol. I stole things. Had some run-ins with the law. I thought I was better than everyone, and there was nothing anyone could do that would make me believe otherwise. One night while I was sleeping in the park, I had a dream. Mom visited me in my sleep that night similar to what Claire has been doing with you and Colton.
“She told me to man up—to accept my responsibilities and grow up. I was seventeen at this point. I wasn’t responsible for my actions. I didn’t understand how my actions could affect other people. I didn’t think there were other people in my life whom my disappearance would impact. Mom didn’t say much to me in this dream, but she told me to remember the flame. Remember everything she told me.
“I came to my senses that night. I stopped the drugs. I became sober. I stopped stealing. I cleaned up my entire act. I walked into the first tattoo parlor I came to and got this tattoo. From that moment on, it became a constant reminder for me not look back. The future is the only thing that can change. I couldn’t change what had already happened to me, but I could do everything in my power to make sure that I made the most of my future. That year was a flicker in my flame and ever since then, my flame as been burning bright.”
“What happened between you and Bragden? You two are pretty close now,” I ask him.
“While I was out, Bragden had inherited the house. In fact, he got everything that mom left us. I was so scared to come back. I didn’t know how everyone would react, but besides a few people, everyone welcomed me back. I moved in with him. While I was away, I continued training. I grew over a foot in height. My hair lengthened and I had this jagged silver scar on my face. Most people regarded my wearily. I didn’t look like the friendly boy I was before I left.
“I didn’t train with Valdus anymore. Even though I was only seventeen, I had already come into my powers. Bragden and I got closer while we lived together. We realized that we just reacted to mom’s death in different ways. We just needed time to let everything sizzle out. As we started to understand each other more, we pushed back everything from the previous years. I’ve never been as close to Bragden as I am right now. To this day, I still don’t know what happened to Ezra. He left shortly after I did. Like me, he just disappeared.
“Valdus pulled me aside when I was eighteen and told me that Ezra was actually my half brother. We share the same dad. Dad apparently had an affair shortly after Bragden was born and he ditched Ezra’s mother too. Mom never knew, because Dad asked Valdus to never tell her. I don’t know all the details, but Valdus and my father were friends and when Ezra’s mother passed, he promised to take care of him.”
“Does Bragden know?”
“I think so. I’m not sure. I never spoke to him about it directly, but I think he figured it out on his own.”
Liam finishes speaking and neither one of us say anything for a little while. Liam has not had it very easy. I was right with my thought that he had to grow up too quickly.
“Liam, what was your mother’s power?” I ask.
He starts shaking his head. “I’m not sure exactly. I think she had premonition. I think that’s how she was so good at knowing what everyone’s pendants should be, but she never told us specifically. Whenever Bragden or I asked her about she would smile an
d say that the secret was in the flame.” Hmm…the secret is in the flame…what does that even mean?
“Liam, what happens after this?”
“What do you mean?”
“You guys have been training for this your whole life. What about once this is all over? When this prophecy no longer matters? What happens after?”
“Life. Life happens, Ryanne. That’s one thing you can always count on. Life goes on. Whether you want it to, whether or not you’re ready for it, or whether you’re even a part of it, life goes on.”
Chapter Seventeen
We’ve been in this compound for too long. I’ve lost track of the days. I know we’ve only been here a couple of days, but I feel like it’s been forever. It’s weird how sudden my moods can change. Yesterday, I was completely fine. I sat in this cell with Liam for the majority of the day, listening as he told me his story. Today, I want to curl up into a ball and avoid everyone all together.
“Ryanne, you have to eat something,” Liam says. He pushes a plate of food toward me. Surprisingly, it looks good, but I’m not hungry. “You didn’t eat anything yesterday. You need to eat.”
“No, I don’t,” I mumble as I lean back against the hard wall. Ever since Dravin tried to get me to use my magic against the Gadramicks, I’ve lost all appetite and desire to try and break out of here. I know he’s just trying to train his men to fight against me, but I’m not going to give him anything else to use. All it results in is me getting punched, kicked, and knocked to the ground. My body is sore from all the bruises on me.