Magic..
Powers..
Magic wasn't forbidden, it was owned by
Owned across all nine kingdoms in the universe.
Each of the nine kingdom has magic that helped them;
From the ninth and smallest kingdom of Chloris which is the weakest in terms of military strength but best know for it Magical abilities to grow crops even on deserted lands to the first and largest kingdom of Helios;
The most powerful kingdom in the universe. Powers so dangerous and mighty even the strongest kingdoms among the rest dared not challenge it. Where Chloris nurtured life, Helios commanded it.
Magic was a gift.
A birthright.
A force meant to build, to protect, to sustain.
But not all magic was meant to exist.
Four great but extremely rare magic were highly forbidden to exist
They were erased by history
Feared beyond reasoning
Anyone caught with them must be killed by all means.
One of those magic includes the blood magic
The very magic isadora owns
a powerful magic that destroys but never breaks. A magic so evil, the very thought of its destruction make a shiver run down the spine of the people.
It lived within her
It was her…
THREE YEARS LATER;
"Grandma Matilda! Grandma Rose! I am heading to work!" Isa shouted.
She knelt down to tighten the leather straps of her booth, a bright smile on her face.
The last thing she needed was for her feet to slip while climbing the mountain and end in something terrible like death; her grandmamas fragile heart wouldn't be able to handle it.
"Isa darling, wait!"
Grandma Matilda hurried through the door, her old feet moving as fast as they could.
She was holding a warm, golden bun in her hand
Open wide," Matilda panted, reaching her granddaughter. "I am not letting you leave on an empty stomach."
Isa laughed and obeyed. She opened her mouth, and Matilda popped the bun inside. She chewed slowly, closing her eyes as the sweet, buttery dough melted on her tongue.
"Mmh" Isa moaned with a smile "absolutely delicious as usual. Thank you for the buns grandma. I will be back before sunset"
"Here, take this for when you are hungry "
Matilda said. She held out a small bundle wrapped in soft leather and tied with a sturdy rope.
Isadora reached for the food, her stomach already rumbling. But before her fingers could touch it, a pale, wrinkled hand suddenly smacked her arm.
"Ow!" Isa flinched, pulling back.
She looked up to see her grandma rose, disapproval on the old woman's face.
"I told you not to encourage her Maltilda." Rose snapped. She slammed her walking stick against the dirt. "Why are you giving her food?"
"Don't be hard on her rose" Matilda protested "Look at the work she does. She needs her strength! Look at how thin she is getting. She works herself to the bone for this family. The least we can do is keep her fed."
Rose wasn't convinced. She turned to her sister. "I know she works hard. I am not blind. But I hate what she does."
The anger in Rose's eyes softened into something closer to fear. She turned toward Isadora and reached out, gently taking the girl's hand in her own.
"A young woman shouldn't be doing such heavy labor, Isa. That is work for men. I know you were born with the strength of ten men... but you shouldn't show it so boldly."
Rose gently tucked a stray hair behind Isa's ear.
"If you must work, come to the market with us," Rose pleaded. She patted Isa's hand softly. "The money from the vegetables is enough to keep us fed. Then, perhaps., you could find a husband? A nice man to take care of you?"
Isa looked down at her boots. "Grandma, I am almost past the age for that. Men want wives who are young and fresh. I will be twenty two soon."
She saw the disappointment in Rose's eyes and felt guilt. She bit her lip and tried to sound hopeful. "I will marry, Grandma. I promise. Eventually. Maybe one of the men at the wall will notice me."
Rose didn't answer. She just sighed, her shoulders slumping. She let go of Isa's hand and walked back into the house without another word.
Matilda stayed behind. She looked at Isa with sad, kind eyes. "Your grandmother means well, dear," she whispered, glancing back at the door. "She's always been strict, but she only wants you to be safe."
"I know, Grandma," Isa said softly. She forced a smile and took the bundle of food. "Thank you for the food. I really have to leave."
After a quick hug, Isa turned and headed down the road.
The walk took her down a long concrete path. She waved at neighbors and swapped quick greetings with people she had known for years. Finally, she reached the base of the Great Mountain.
Because of her massive strength, Isa didn't work in the kitchens or the markets. She worked with the men. Her job was simple but exhausting: carrying heavy stone bricks up the mountain to help rebuild the walls of Elodine, the Seventh Kingdom.
It had been three years since "the accident" forced her to flee her old life. Now, the kingdom Elodine was her home, and working here were the only way to keep her grandmothers alive.
"You are finally here," Her fellow worker, Darius said, wiping sweat from his forehead. He gave her a tired smile.
Isa nodded, setting her bag down in the dirt. "I need extra coin today. Winter is coming"
She didn't waste any time. She began piling stone bricks into a large metal bucket. When that one was full, she filled a second one to the brim. She slid a thick iron rod through the handles, balanced the weight, and hoisted both buckets on her shoulders.
To anyone else, this load was a nightmare. To Isa, it felt like carrying feathers. If she had two more arms, she would have doubled the weight without breaking a sweat.
"It still amazes me," Darius muttered. He struggled to lift his own load. His legs shook as he stood up.
He only had one bucket, and it wasn't even full, yet his face was turning red from the effort. "You are too powerful for your own good, Isa. Though, I guess being that powerful is normal for people of Nortedus like you"
Isa's heart skipped a beat. She forced a stiff smile and started walking toward the mountain, moving faster than usual.
"I guess so!" she called back over her shoulder.
The lie tasted bitter in her mouth. She had told everyone she was from the Sixth Kingdom, Nortedus, a land known for having people with magical abilities that made them extremely strong. It was the only way to hide the truth.
If people thought she was just a strong girl from a kingdom known for having strong people, she was safe.
She couldn't let them know the truth. She wasn't from Nortedus at all. She was from Nabeera, the Eighth Kingdom.
Nabeera was a land of healers. The people there had magic abilities to heal, not muscles. They had no physical strength like hers at all.
She had forbidden blood magic and that was why she was so powerful she could lift these stones but nobody must find out.
. She remembered the screams from three years ago. She remembered the humiliation, the beating . She could never let that happen again.
"You still haven't told me, Isa," Darius panted as they began to climb the mountain.
"Told you what?" she asked. Her voice was calm, even though she was carrying twice as much as him.
"What is Nortedus really like?" Darius wiped his brow. "It's a rich kingdom, much better than this place. It's ranked sixth for a reason. Why would a strong girl like you come here to do back breaking labor in a place like Elodine?"
Isa didn't hesitate. She had practiced this lie a thousand times.
"My grandmothers," she said. "They wanted peace. Elodine is quiet, and they are old. I go where they go."
Darius nodded slowly, his face red from the weight of his single bucket. Her answer made sense to him. No one questioned a girl who loved her family.
Hours passed. Under the hot sun, Isa moved back and forth like a machine. By the time the sun began to set, she had carried more bricks than any five men on the site combined.
The foreman walked over, checking his scroll. He looked at the massive pile of stones Isa had delivered.
"If we had ten more workers like you, Isa, this wall would be finished before the first snow," he said, sounding impressed.
Isa gave a small, awkward smile. She hated the attention. Every compliment felt like a spotlight on a secret she was trying to hide.
"You have done enough for today," the foreman said. He reached into his pouch. "Here. You earned this."
Isadora's eyes went wide as she looked at the coins in her palm. She quickly shook her head, trying to push the money back.
"I can't take this," she whispered. "What about everyone else? It's too much."
"Don't worry about them," the foreman replied, closing her fingers over the coins. "There is enough for the others. But you? You did the work of five men. You deserve this."
Isa felt a chill that had nothing to do with the mountain air. She looked over her shoulder at the line of men waiting for their pay.
She felt nothing but discomfort under their stares. Most of the men on the site couldn't stand her. Except for Darius and a few others, they watched her with eyes full of jealousy.
To them, she wasn't just a hard worker, she was a girl taking their gold and making them look weak.
"Thank you," she said quickly. She tucked the money away and hurried off before the whispers could start.
Once she was out of sight, a genuine smile broke across her face. She pulled the coins out and counted them again. "It's enough"
she thought, her heart racing. "We can buy extra grain and thick blankets. We might actually survive this winter."
She can finally rest for a few days before going back to work after this big pay.
But first, she needed to wash the mountain dust from her skin.
While the men went to the Eastern Spring to bath, Isa turned toward the North. She headed for the Northern Spring River
It was a place most people avoided. The water was beautiful and crystal clear, but it was home to the River Sprites; tiny, shimmering creatures that loved to play cruel tricks on humans.
But they knew better than to mess with Isadora.
"Isadora, where do you think you are going?" A very annoying voice called out.
Isa didn't even have to look to know it was Otis.
She rolled her eyes in disgust and kept walking.
"Come on! Headed to the Eastern Spring?" Otis shouted, his voice full of a fake friendliness that made her skin crawl. "Let us go have a soak together, Isa. We are all friends here!"
She didn't answer. She just walked faster, her boots thumping against the dirt. But Otis was persistent.
He ran towards her and grabbed her wrist, jerking her to a stop.
Isa froze. She looked down at his hand, then slowly looked up at his face.
"I am going to count to three, Otis," she said, her voice dropping low and dangerous. "If your hand is still on me by the time I am done, I swear by the Gods, you won't be able to use that arm for the rest of the winter."
Otis didn't move. Instead, he burst into a loud, mocking laugh. His friends, Greg and Big Joe, stepped out from behind a tree.
They were always nearby, ready to help Otis make her life miserable. They hated that a girl could out work them, and they never let her forget it.
"One," Isa counted.
"You are always so serious, Isa!" Otis chuckled, looking back at his friends for approval. "You work like one of the men, don't you? So why are you acting so shy? Having a bath with the boys shouldn't be a problem."
"Two."
"Don't be so hot headed, Isado..ARGH!"
He screamed. Before he could finish his sentence, Isa's hand snapped up.
She grabbed his wrist, the one holding her and squeezed.
The sound of his bones shifting under her grip was sickening. She didn't just hold him; she crushed him.
"Stop! Stop! Please!" Otis screamed. He fell to his knees, his face turning white.
Isa didn't let go. She leaned in closer, her grip tightening until the bone was a second away from snapping like a dry twig.
"Do you want to see 'Three'?" she asked softly.
Greg and Big Joe stood frozen. Their faces were pale as they looked from Otis's screaming face to Isa's cold eyes. They didn't move a muscle. They knew Otis was the strongest of the three of them, and Isa was breaking him easily
"You have a mother to feed this winter, Otis," she whispered, giving his wrist one last, painful squeeze. "I won't destroy your arm today. But don't expect me to be this merciful next time."
She pushed him away. Otis fell to the ground, cradling his arm and sobbing. Isa didn't look back. She picked up her bag and walked toward the trees.
The air grew cool as she reached the Northern Spring. The moment she stepped on the river bank, the tiny river sprites screamed.
They scrambled into the air, hiding behind leaves and diving under lily pads.
They remembered. The first time Isa had come here, the sprites had tried to drown her for sport. She had shown them a "trick" or two, and they hadn't bothered her since.
"You know, if you all just stopped attacking me, we could be friends," Isa said. She sighed and began to untie her tunic. "We could share the river in peace."
"We refuse to be friends with you!" a tiny, high pitched voice squeaked from behind a tree.
A sprite named Lilian fluttered out, her wings glowing with anger. She stayed just out of Isa's reach.
"You used your blood magic on Elvin!" Lilian cried. "You made him fly around the river seven times against his will. His poor wings almost fell off! Do you have any idea how long it took him to heal?"
Isa paused, she felt a bit of guilt but she shook it off.
"Elvin tried to drown me while I was sleeping," Isa reminded her. "I was just teaching him a lesson"
"It's evil magic," Lilian hissed, her tiny eyes narrowed. "You are lucky we haven't told the King's guards what you really are."
Isa's heart stopped, her smile disappearing.
She looked at the tiny creature. "If you tell the guards, I will be dead. But before they take me, I will make sure this spring runs dry. Is that what you want?"
The forest went silent. The sprites stopped fluttering. They knew she wasn't joking.
"LNo!" Lilian squeaked, her tiny face red with anger. "Let us go home!" She waved her arms at the other sprites, and they all buzzed away into the trees like a cloud of annoyed fireflies.
Isa watched them go, a small smile on her lips.
She knew the sprites didn't even live here. Their real home was the Ilan Spring in the west, a place perfect for their kind.
But sprites were natural bullies. They had decided this river belonged to them, and they made it their mission to terrorize any human who dared to visit.
Isadora was the only one they couldn't bully.
She stepped into the water, gasping slightly as she felt the cold on her skin.
She went in deeper until, then slowly let herself sink.
The pressure in her muscles began to melt away. The dust of the mountain, the anger of the men, and the fear of her own magic, it all seemed to float away in the river.
Isa took a deep breath and buried her head in the water.
She held her breath, her heart slowing down. One minute passed. Then two. She liked the feeling of the water on her skin, washing away the dust of the Seventh Kingdom.
Her lungs eventually began to demand for air. She prepared to swim back toward the surface, but she paused.
She felt something in the water.
Isa opened her eyes in the water. Everything was blurry and blue, but something was wrong.
Down in the bottom of the river, she saw something. Something that shouldn't be there.
She tried to focus her eyes, squinting through the blurry blue water.
Was it a huge fish? Some kind of river monster?
No. The shape was too long, too still.
Her curiosity got the better of her. She swam deeper, pushing herself toward the dark riverbed. As she got closer and closer, the water image slowly became clear.
As soon as she realized what she was looking at, Isa let out a muffled scream.
Bubbles exploded from her mouth as she kicked her legs wildly, desperate to reach the surface .
She burst through the surface, gasping and coughing.
"No, no, no! Not today!" she panicked.
She immediately got out of the water and on solid ground . She was shivering, but it wasn't from the cold.
What had she just seen? Why was that down there?
It was a man. A real man.
And he looked very, very dead.
"I have to go. I have to go home right now," Isa whispered to herself. Her hands shook as she grabbed her clothes from the grass, clutching them to her chest.
She didn't want any part of this. In a world of magic and kings, a dead body usually meant trouble, the kind of trouble that ended in executions.
She turned to run, but a soft sound stopped her.
Glub. Glub.
She froze. She looked back at the spot where she had been swimming.
Small bubbles were coming to the surface. They were tiny and weak, like something was struggling to take its very last breath.
Isa felt weird in her stomach. Was he still alive?
Just walk away, her mind whispered. If you save him, you will be noticed. If you
Are noticed, they will find out who you are.
But the bubbles didn't stop.
Could he still be alive?
"No!" Isa hissed, shaking her head. She held her clothes tighter. For three years, she had been invisible . She had worked hard, kept her head down, and stayed out of trouble.
Saving a mysterious man from the bottom of a river was the opposite of staying out of town.
She couldn't do it. She shouldn't do it.
She pulled her tunic over her head, her fingers trembling. But as she tried to walk away, her feet felt heavy.
Her mind told her to run, but her heart wouldn't let her move.
Could I really live with myself? she wondered.
Could I sleep tonight knowing I let someone drown just because I was scared?
"No, I shouldn't," she whispered to the empty forest. "I can't. It's too dangerous."
She took one step away. Then another.
Then she stopped.
"Oh, curse my soul," she growled.
She threw her clothes back on the grass and didn't give herself another second to think.
She sprinted toward the bank and jumped inW