Umbra couldn’t sleep, when she closed her eyes she saw the mother screaming her hands cut in half held before her face. Her eyes looking at Umbra with fear and pain. And the son, the disgusting son crouched at her side sobbing. As Umbra cut him down He deserved it but the mother was just trying to protect what she loved and Umbra had killed her then reveled in the feeling of innocent death. Umbra felt sick

She slipped out of bed. The darkness of her room seemed alive. She could feel the cold shadows drawing closer to her, blanketing her and she grimaced, it wasn’t unpleasant precisely, just the thought that darkness was the only thing that truly wanted to be near her.

Umbra didn’t want to sit in her room and reminisce and there were no rules on exploring the estate. So she walked up to the staircase from her room and picked a direction at random. Lit lamps sat on the stone walls at regular intervals creating a warm yellow light. Umbra didn’t know where she was in the U-shaped estate the corridors curved and turned at random, and every dozen paces or so doors appeared on the stone walls. Umbra wondered again at why Master Otaro would need such a massive estate, maybe he used to have more students.

While wandering Umbra noticed a far off feeling and she felt drawn to it like a moth to light, and she sought it out through the maze of corridors. It led her to a door in one of the corridors, it was an unassuming door much the same as the hundreds Umbra had passed before it. But behind it was the feeling far more intense now. Umbra tried the handle of the door, it was unlocked, it wasn’t against the rules to enter.

The room inside was overgrown with vines and plants and a soft carpet of grass grew on the floor, the wall opposite the door was non-existent it opened to the back of the estate, a small forest grew a five-minute walk away. And lying just outside of the room was a figure surrounded by blooming wildflowers and long grass, the person was obscured by the wildflowers but Umbra could guess who it was. Why am I here? Umbra thought with a flush of embarrassment, this place wasn’t for her. But she couldn’t help but take a step forward as she now recognised the feeling that led her here. It was magic and it was flowing off Jeeani.

Her bare foot hit the grass it tickled her. Abruptly, the magic stopped and Jeeani stood up from the flowers and looked directly at Umbra. “Ahh, I’m sorry I was just wandering and–.”

“No, it is ok you just startled me, you don’t feel like the others,” Jeeani said in her forest voice and started making her way towards Umbra.

“What do you mean,” asked Umbra. Jeeani stood before her now.

“You don’t feel of life; like everyone else.” Jeeani reached up with her hand and rested it against Umbra’s cool cheek. Her hand was warm like the sun on a lazy afternoon and the blackness surged to meet it. Jeeani gasped and all the sound of life went silent, the buzzing of the insects, the rustling of the trees when the wind blew through them. Not a sound. “Death, we are two sides of the same coin.” She whispered in the silence. Before quickly stepping back and removing her hand from Umbra’s cheek. Umbra stood stunned the feeling of Jeeani’s hand remained. She looked at Jeeani who was standing not with the wariness she was starting to get used to but with surprise and interest.

“You have life magic,” Umbra said before internally smacking herself obviously she has life magic, look at her. Jeeani laughed and the world once again lit up with the sound of life.

“Quite perceptive aren’t you,” and Jeeani laughed again. Umbra didn’t feel insulted the laughter was innocent and without malice and she couldn’t help but laugh a little with her. “Why are you hear, Umbra,” she asked with interest.

“I couldn’t sleep, nightmares of a kind. So I was wandering.” Jeeani nodded gravely in reply.

“You can sleep in my bed; nightmares will not bother you while I am around.” Umbra blushed. And Jeeani laughed at her reaction “Don’t worry I will sleep in the grass outside. You should be getting to sleep Master Otaro’s lesson is in the morning.”

“Oh yeah, I almost forgot. I’ll sleep in your bed then,” Umbra said. Jeeani gave her a radiant smile and walked back outside to lie in her flowers.

Umbra had never slept so well in her life and just as Jeeani had promised no nightmares. Umbra thought back on their conversation had that really happened, it felt so dreamlike. She was in Jeeani’s room so it must’ve been, Jeeani was not here though. And outside where she had been sleeping, ferns, flowers, bushes, even saplings had grown through the night. It was beautiful and astonishing; this is what magic should be.

It was still early morning, she could grab some food before Master Otaro’s lesson if she could find it. Turns out it wasn’t too hard to locate she just had to follow her nose. The courtyard had a table set up, where the delicious smells had wafted in from the wind. The students were spread around the courtyard Apithe the blue-skinned girl was with Nora and Hayao at the far end of the table, they seemed to be getting along well together. Dovrag sat alone under the shade of the great tree chewing on some pastry. And Jeeani was missing.

Umbra was ravenous and headed towards the tables, the group at the far end ignored her. Umbra didn’t mind and collected a plate and grabbed some alien looking pastries, they wound in a cone and had a sweet fruit smelling paste inside. There were some greasy strips of meat that smelled fantastic and she filled her plate with them alongside some purple fruit.

She wandered over to the tree in the middle of the courtyard, Dovrag looked up at her approach. “Can I sit here,” Umbra asked. He nodded so he was pretending to not understand Nora’s questions then. She plopped down beside him, he was comfortable. She ate carefully she wasn’t V after all, that line of thought brought a pang of hurt and she concentrated on her food. “Death hungers,” Dovrag said in an emotionless tone his voice was guttural but not unpleasant. Was that a joke? Umbra thought in surprise. She could sense a wry sort of humour in his grey eyes.

“You know, and you joke?”

“Yes,” he replied simply.

“Why aren’t you behaving like them then,” she waved a hand towards the group. He sneered.

“They are fålke, unblooded. They have not seen death. I have seen Death and its many faces. It is not something to fear it is inevitable.” And he leaned back on the tree comfortably finished talking. Death is inevitable huh. Umbra thought and went back to eating the pastries which were delicious, the fruit paste inside the perfect level of sweetness. It was comfortable sitting with Dovrag he didn’t behave as if she was different.

Umbra put her plate down some food still remaining she had taken way too much. Where was Master Otaro he said early maybe he just meant morning in that case they might have to wait a bit longer. It was then that Jeeani decided to make her entrance walking around the wing of the house and into the courtyard, she saw Umbra and smiled her radiant smile, and made her way towards Umbra. Jeeani gracefully dropped to the ground beside the tree, she was covered in more foliage and leaves than usual. “Were you in the forest?” Umbra asked.

“Yeah, I like early morning walks,”

“Do you want some food” Umbra said and held out her plate.

“Sure,” and Jeeani grabbed the last remaining pastry.

They only had to wait a short while longer before Master Otaro walked out of the front door of the estate. Tired blue eyes falling on each one of his students. He stopped in front of them, Umbra and Jeeani moved with the others to stand in front of him. He nodded in satisfaction. “Time is precious let’s start.” He paused as if gathering his thoughts “Magic is a complicated thing, and it doesn’t work the same for everyone for this reason your learning will be almost entirely self-directed and will require great dedication for you to succeed. There is a library located in the estate, and exploring will provide you with many rewards, on the far end of the island a half days walk from here lies a city. I suggest you make use of all these amenities if you wish to improve. Every week starting from the next you will come to me and show me what you learned. Remember you aren’t doing this to become a mage, you are doing this to become favoured, and the only way to become favoured is to attract the attention of a deity for this you need to show dedication and strength as well as desirable characteristics for that deity.” He looked at Umbra and said “Just be yourself I picked you because I can see the potential in you.”

“Now to begin your first and most likely only lesson from me, I will explain how you can improve your magic and manifest and control it, this is the base of all magic, spells will come in time.” He looked at them briefly to make sure they were still listening. “The only manner in which you can grow your magic is by absorbing the magic of your aptitude, so for me, that would be the wind or nature. The most effective way of doing this is to surround yourself in your element and then draw it into yourself, this is extremely difficult, takes a lot of time and does not provide much improvement. it is therefore imperative that you start this process as soon as possible. As it is one of the only ways you can grow stronger.” So the only way that I can improve is to surround myself in death and darkness Umbra shivered that doesn’t sound nice.

“We will learn of control now, be seated with room to spare between you and close your eyes.” Umbra did so. “Now you will need to find your being for each of you it will be different, but it will be distinctive you must take a hold of it when you find it.” Umbra knew what he was talking about, the blackness inside her. She had pushed it down since it had last come out with Jeeani, it scared her. But she found it and gripped it.

Master Otaro stood silent for a while then said with satisfaction “Good you have all found it, this lesson might be shorter than I expected.” And Umbra felt a surge of confidence at the indirect compliment “Next you will have to pull a strand from it, only a strand anymore could be dangerous, as you do not have the necessary control to harness anymore. do not worry about the loss of your magic it will restore itself.” Not a second later Umbra felt frigid cold “Good job, Apithe that was perfect.” Umbra felt a rush of irrational anger at the red-eyed girl for beating her. She returned her attention to her being. There were no strands it was just pitch blackness and she pulled at it but nothing came off. She gritted her teeth in frustration and tore at it and a chunk came away surging through her and then out of her, she heard muted screams but the blackness had her and she was reveling in the feeling of power. Until an incredibly warm hand touched her and a forest voice whispered “Control yourself, Umbra,” it was a kind voice and from the hand flowed light that wound itself around her blackness making it easier for her to control.

She opened her eyes and followed the hand on her shoulder up to Jeeani’s grave face. And then she looked around. The grass was withered and the great tree in the courtyard had lost it’s leaves and had taken a grey colour. Hayao, Nora, and Apithe were against the walls of the estate a step away from the edge of the dead grass, fear plastered on their faces. Dovrag was on the other side surprise on his features. The worst was Master Otaro’s look of concern he hadn’t moved standing on still live grass surrounded by the dead.

“I’m… I’m sorry,” Umbra said meekly. Jeeani just smiled at her kindly and the others didn’t move.

“We are done, you all know what to do, remember to check the library and explore the island and the city. Umbra I would like to talk to you.”

Umbra grimaced this has to be the earliest expulsion of all time. She followed Master Otaro as he set a quick pace towards the ocean. When they came to the beach he slowed faced the ocean and said: “You need to be more careful Umbra, if you lose control your peers will die.”

“There was no strand though,” Umbra complained.

“There is always a strand but you must find it normal mages take years to find it and pull it. Apithe found it so quickly through a combination of enormous luck and talent, I didn’t expect any of you to be able to complete it today.” He swept his blue gaze over the ocean and then to Umbra “You must learn to be patient.”

“Yes Master,” Umbra said obediently. And he stood still for a moment.

“There is another more delicate matter I want to discuss with you,” and he looked at Umbra seriously. “The manner of your improvement, you will find your room is suited to drawing in darkness as well as various more potent places around the island. But your primary aptitude is for death and improvement through darkness will be slow before finally capping. The city is full of people and you are death.”

“What are you saying Master” Umbra asked, shock rooting her body to the spot.

“There must be death for your improvement, and your improvement is more important than the lives of ordinary folk, as long as you do no take more than is necessary I will ignore it.”

“I won’t kill innocent people just to be more powerful.” Umbra said, “That is disgusting.”

“It is an unfortunate necessity, and I am sure you can find those deserving of it but I will not force you, just remember do not resist what you are. It will bring only pain and failure.” And with those words, he left Umbra standing alone looking out at the immense ocean as it smashed against the beach.