Voices. That’s the first thing Meira hears when she starts regaining consciousness. She knows she recognizes two of them but there are more. They sound older, and angrier.

“Her Mark is in the same place, she looks exactly like her!"

“But you didn’t have to bring her here if you aren’t sure!” one of them says.

“The magic was weird, we needed her or we wouldn’t have had enough energy to get here” another voice, Kylem, a part of her brain supplies.

“You didn’t need to use her as the main source though” she doesn’t have to think about this one. Rakan. He sounds a bit pissed. Are they talking about her?

“Excuse me if I wanted her knocked out for a bit when we arrived” Kylem answers.

“Calm down, all of you, I’m sure we’ll get an answer soon enough” this one’s a woman and it’s her soothing voice the one that makes Meira open her eyes at last. There’s five people in the room, the two boys from before, two men, or at least somewhat older than the others and a woman who is applying something to Rakan’s shoulder. The boy is shirtless so Meira can see his chest, the very distinct mark on his skin. Nobody is paying attention to her, lying in what looks like a couch. “How did you even get injured like this? You’ve faced worse”

“Rakan was being stupid” Kylem says, a small protest from the boy in question “And we couldn’t use magic or call for our weapons” the three older look at Kylem with shock, did they really not know where they were going?

“If you wanted to call for weapons you should have used runes” Meira says, getting up from the couch and heading towards the others. She is feeling better at an almost alarming fast rate, maybe it has to do with the magic here, she had never been outside of the town and boy, it feels amazing.

“And who exactly are you?” it’s the same angry voice from before, it comes from the guy with a matching angry face, Meira decides she doesn’t like his tone. Or him.

“My name’s Meira but I don’t know why that should concern you” Everyone stays silent looking at her then, everyone but Rakan, that shoots up from the couch he was sitting on with a shout.

“I told you all!” he winces immediately after, bringing his hand up to his shoulder.

Meira doesn’t pay attention to what he said or the reactions of the others, she stands their shocked faces and Kylem’s calculating one and walks to Rakan, making him sit down again and sitting next to him.

She reaches out a hand and places it on top of Rakan’s shoulder. The woman makes a move to stop her but seems to change her mind. Her hand is touching the blood, and it’s going to be dirty but she doesn’t care, she lets the power flow through her and go to Rakan’s skin. He is smiling at her and she can’t help but answer with her own smile, it’s contagious.

Meira looks at the Mark on Rakan’s chest. The dragon. There is a necklace on top of it, a simple thing but one that looks really important. It’s just a white quartz but it’s tied with a black string that looks pretty worn out. Meira finally lets go of the shoulder and reaches out for one of the cloths next to Rakan that the woman was using before, cleaning her hand of blood before she cleans Rakan’s shoulder with the cloth and water. Everyone seems to hold their breath when the blood is cleaned out revealing that there is no longer a wound there, only a thin pink line.

“I think it will fade in a day or two but it can leave a scar, it really went all the way through you”

“It’s okay, thanks Mei”

Mei?

The door opens then, a girl coming in. She stops when she sees the scene. Taking everything in before she looks directly at Meira, clearly confused about her presence. The first thing that Meira notices is her eyes. They are almost white, a silver glow on them that makes you want to keep staring at them. She looks a bit younger than her, and shorter, but that is not very difficult. She has blond hair, part of it tied up with small braids against the side of her head. She is wearing a short dress so Meira can clearly see her Mark on her thigh and on her chest, her other Mark is just peeking from the dress a bit. She looks away from Meira and down at the cloths with blood. She pales a bit and closes the door.

“What happened? Are you okay?” she asks Rakan. She looks torn between getting concerned and going in a lecture about being careful.

“It’s okay, Meira healed me.”

The girl looks at her surprised.

“Okay this is getting a little weird.” Meira says while getting up “I don’t know who you are, well I do, obviously” she gestures vaguely to Rakan’s Mark “but I don’t know you so you’re welcome for helping you and now if you please would take me back home I would really appreciate it.”

“What?” Rakan asks, his face just as confused as his voice.

“I’m all in for your fight against the Hexian Empire, okay? Imperialism bad and all that. But I can’t really help much, I only heal a bit and conjure up some light, maybe enough to blind someone for some time but nothing even at you guys level.”

“But you are one of us”

“I am Marked” she moves her hair so they can see her mark, just below her right ear “but I’m nowhere near your level.”

“But you did say you are Meira right? And Rakan recognized you” The woman says, she has her eyebrows furrowed. Kylem and Rakan look at each other and at the girl as if they are having a silent conversation. Rakan reaches his hand up to play with his necklace and sighs.

“I am Tirakan, the Changing Dragon.” He starts saying while getting up from the couch “These are Kylem, the Son of the Moon, and Lífdagar, the Giver of Life. You are Meira, the Light of the Gods, and I am sorry about this”

He yanks his necklace from his neck, snapping the string that tied it up. He presses the quartz on Meira’s hand then, and the second he does she starts feeling energy, raw and strong as she has never felt before travelling up her arm and towards her chest and she feels it burn, she clutches at her chest with her free hand, letting out a small cry of pain before doubling over, she feels hands supporting her but doesn’t know who it is, something is glowing, from her hand and her chest and she can’t see anything.

It feels like minutes but it’s probably only a few seconds when the burning recedes. She gains her breath back and looks down at her chest. Everyone is looking down at her chest, Rakan and Lífdagar from where they are supporting her with smiles because there, where there was only bare skin is now a Mark, not the normal one like the one on her neck but the Light Mark.

“What is this?” she asks.

“Try to shoot your light now, in that direction” Rakan signals to a wall.

“Don’t-“ one of the men starts but he is interrupted by her doing just that, just like she always does but now the light is much stronger, what before would have been a spark now shoots out of her hand and goes straight to the wall leaving a clean hole the size of a head.

“Nice!” Rakan exclaims.

One of the men lets out a long sigh “I’ve told you a million times before not to cast that kind of magic inside”

Nobody pays attention to him.

“How?” Meira asks.

“You have a burn scar on your back” Rakan says. Meira looks up from the quartz to him “I did that to you when we were kids and the ones taking care of us decided that our powers were too strong. They blocked some of our powers and bind them to crystals, when we were attacked I found yours and, I don’t know, I just kept it. I thought I could give it to you but… Do you not remember anything?”

Rakan shows his emotions like an open book and right now he looks absolutely devastated. Meira feels bad about what she’s going to say next.

“I had a magical accident with my parents when I was eleven. They died and I lost my memory. I’ve been living with my aunt since then and now I would like to go back home.”

Rakan lets his gaze drop to the floor. Meira feels her heartbeat stop and then continue stronger, she really doesn’t want to hurt this boy and it would make so much sense if she knew him from before but… this is too much too fast.

“I think we should go with her” Everyone looks up at Kylem in surprise. “We’ll go accompany her home as we are the ones that brought her here. You said rune magic was okay there, right?” he asks Meira, she nods “We have someone who can use it, we’ll get her to make some transporters for us and then we’ll go”

Kylem looks between Rakan and Lífdagar. Rakan looks absolutely betrayed.

“I agree” Lífdagar says “I think I can lend her some clean clothes, though she is bigger than me, while you get the transporters done and we can go.”

Meira looks down at her clothes then, just now realising just how filthy they are, she is going to agree with the plan when Kylem interrupts her.

“You are not coming” he says. Lífdagar looks at him, if looks could kill Kylem would be dead now.

“Why.”

“It could be dangerous.”

“That’s a reason why I should go with you two, I could help.”

“You are too young.”

“I’m twenty! I’m almost the same age as Rakan and he has been going on missions for years now!” They are shouting now, and it’s only getting more uncomfortable for the rest of them.

“But you could get hurt!”

“So could you! Ugh, you are just like him” She says the last part quieter but everyone still hears it. Meira must be missing something because everyone goes still at that and Kylem is looking at her with his eyes half closed.

“Kyl-“ Rakan starts

“Okay but if you get hurt don’t blame me” He storms off then, shutting the door as strongly as he can.

“What a dick” Meira lets out, it makes a small smile appear on Lífdagar’s face.

“Well” starts one of the men, Meira turns to him, he is next to where the hole of the wall should be but she realises that it is fixed now “I want to at least present myself. I am Howard and I’m kind of like the director of this place if you want to call me that, she is Elinor, and he is Charles, the representative from the Council, they help me a lot around here so you can say we’re kind of the leaders.”

“Nice to meet you” she puts her hand on her heart and inclines her head, the others answering with the same gesture.

“We have to get everything ready now so if you’ll excuse us” They start to move, the other man gives her a strange look when he passes next to her, completely opposite of the warm smile and the pat on the shoulder that the woman gives her.

“Rakan, we’ll need you to calm Kylem down, you can see her later” the woman calls out from the door, Rakan gives Meira a sheepish smile before he moves to leave too.

“I’ll be back with your clothes in no time okay?” Lífdagar says “There’s a bathroom through that door” she points to a corner “If you want to clean yourself a little, I’m sorry we didn’t do it but you woke up pretty fast, we didn’t have time”

“It’s okay.”

“Okay, I have some big clothes I can lend you, see you in a bit!”

“Thank you Lífdagar” Meira says before she can leave.

“Oh, it’s okay, and call me just Liv, my name is a bit long” She adds with a smile.

“Okay, call me Mei then.”

Meira just cleans her face and arms, her body was not that dirty, only a bit dusty from the streets, and her clothes took most of the dirt. She looks at herself in the mirror, at her new Mark on her chest, and not only that, but the new colour of her other Mark. Previously faint, now it contrasts against her skin, almost as much as Rakan’s does. Liv was right, she is knocking on the door before Meira can start wondering when is she coming back.

“Come in!” she calls out. She is not wearing any clothes right now, just her underwear, but she has never been shy about her body, and Liv seems trustworthy.

Meira hurries to help her with the clothes when she sees her struggling to close the door. This close their height difference is even more notorious, Meira is a head taller than Liv.

“Thank you” Liv says, she closes the door and turns to Meira, her cheeks getting red when she sees that she is in her underwear “It’ll probably be a bit small on you”

“It’s okay” Meira moves the clothes to the couch she had been lying on before and starts going through them. Liv has brought maybe too many clothes, probably not knowing what she’ll like. She chooses some linen pants and a simple white shirt.

“The man, Howard, he said that he is the director of this place but what exactly is it? Where are we?” Meira asks.

“This is a Kare, we are a bit far from your home I’m afraid, almost at the border with Prunetzia, that’s why the travel took so much energy from you”

Meira ponders the new information. They are really a long way from her town, it seems almost impossible, the pearl they had referred to before traveling must have been a very powerful device.

“So… what’s the deal with that guy?” Meira asks while she changes.

“With Kylem?” Liv turns to look at Meira, turning back to look through the window when she sees that she is not dressed yet. “He is just too overprotective. We’ve been living together since I was ten, when you disappeared…” she looks at Meira carefully “you really don’t know anything right?” the girl shakes her head “Ten years ago the Kare where you and Rakan were in was the first to be attacked by the Hexians," Meira doesn’t say anything but it’s weird, people telling you things that supposedly happened to you, with no doubt that you’ll believe them “then Kylem’s, so the Council decided to bring us all together. The clan I was staying with took me with the others and they brought us all here, this place is protected, it’s one of the safest spaces we have right now. I can show you around a bit if you want” she turns around only to see Meira already dressed and looking down at her feet, she looks down too and “Oh my god they are too short for you” the pants don’t reach all the way to the ankle “I should have asked someone else to lend you the clothes”

“No, it’s okay. I like them. Now, were you going to show me around?”

Meira starts hearing noise the moment they step out of the room, it’s quiet and it sounds far but it was completely silent inside the room. The building looks old but well kept, all of the walls adorned.

“This is the second floor, here are the classes and offices and I don’t know, things like that. Upstairs are the bedrooms and downstairs are the training areas and kitchens and stuff like that.”

“So this is like every other Kare?” Meira can hear the teachers talking from the other side of the doors.

“In a sense it is. We take Marked children and give them a safe home, and education. The small ones are not here though, they are in another building, this place is for the ones that are older than fourteen”

They reach a staircase that openly leads to a big hall. Meira follows Liv down the stairs. The hall has a high ceiling making it so that the second floor is open to it too. Meira looks around the decorations and painted ceilings, statues and plants around the room. Liv reaches out to a plant with a hand and it moves to grace her fingertips. She just smiles and continues to the main door.

“So… no shoes then?” Meira asks, the other girl is not wearing any and she hasn’t given her any either. Liv turns to her and starts getting red.

“Oh my gods sorry” she moves to one of the plants quickly and kneels on the floor, getting a pair of shoes from behind the plant “I think these can fit.”

Meira puts them on and maybe they are a bit tight, but they do fit, at least when she folds the heels. She doesn’t ask why there were shoes in one of the plants, she feels it would only fluster Liv more. They go out and Meira doesn’t comment on how Liv doesn’t put shoes on. There is a big field in front of the Kare, a forest beyond it that gets closer at the sides of the building and, Meira guesses, at the back. There are people on the field, they are sparring with different weapons, practising archery, training with their powers.

“The safe area reaches just to the other side of the forest.”

“How do you keep it up?”

“Everyone above the age of twenty can get a rune on their body and it takes some of their power to fuel the barrier. I got mine recently” she smiles and touches her side “when everything started ten years ago there weren’t many older than twenty here so it was small and some got their runes when they were younger. Howard got his when he was seventeen.”

“Wait, Howard is only twenty-seven?”

“Well yeah, he is one of the oldest here too. When everything started all the Marked above twenty tried to stop the Hexians so... let’s say that they are no longer with us” she grimaces and Meira nods, she had heard about it, the first attempts at stopping the Hexians when they started to gain power. She had heard about Kylem and Liv and Rakan, only never with their names and she had never thought she would be part of it.

They have walked around the building and to one of the sides. Meira doesn’t really know why she needs a tour of the place if she is going to leave but something inside her tells her that she’ll need it. They approach a small building next to the big one. Liv is about to enter when the door slams open startling the two of them.

“Of course you never let me work in peace!” the woman that comes out is saying, flailing her arms around “you are always please I need these runes now, no they can’t wait” Kylem and Rakan come out of the door too with amused looks on their faces “well guess what, rune magic takes its time, it’s sophisticated, not like that barbaric magic you do” she notices Liv then and pauses “not you Liv dear, of course, the flowers that you gave me last week are beautiful” Liv smiles and Rakan lets out a huff. The woman turns to Meira then “Everything above! It’s an honour meeting you” she comes closer and starts fussing around the girl.

“Has she made the transporters?” Liv asks the boys while the woman is with Meira.

“Of course, she made them the moment we told her what they were for and now she is complaining” Rakan says.

“She won’t do the runes on our weapons so we can make them appear though, she says it’s more complicated” Kylem adds.

“But we are going to get a new rune on our hands” Rakan seems maybe too excited about that.

Liv notices then that the boys are actually carrying their weapons, something they almost never do. Rakan has a sword at his waist and Kylem his chakrams on his back.

“You are going armed?” Liv asks. She will have to go grab her dagger, it’s not unusual to carry her weapons, she is not a Creator like the other two.

“We don’t know what to expect” Kylem says.

Howard and Elinor approach them then. Elinor gives Liv a tanto and shoes that she hurries to put on.

“Is everything ready now?” Howard asks

“Yup!” Rakan answers stepping forward.

“I don’t know why are you so hurried though, you could stay a few days with us” The woman says to Meira.

“I think I may come back some day but I want to go home now” Meira answers. The woman purses her lips.

“We’ll wait for you”

“Come here” Rakan tells Meira. She gets closer to the others and feels Rakan taking one of her hands in his and Liv the other, they are both touching Kylem too, who has a rock on his hand.

“Get ready” Kylem says.

“Be careful” Elinor tells them.

“We always are” Rakan answers, and then, everything feels dizzy again.

When the dizziness disappears, they are back at the alley where the attack was. The bodies of the soldiers have been cleared but there is still blood remaining on the floor.

“Oh shit!” Meira runs to the entrance of the alley “I left the things I bought here and now they are fucking gone. I swear you can’t trust anyone here”

“Was it anything important?” Liv asks.

“Not really, just fruit and vegetables, some meat”

“I can help you with those later if you want” Liv offers with a smile.

“Thanks”

“Where is your house?” Kylem asks while looking around the street.

“Just a few houses down the street”

Meira leads the group, thanking everything that nobody is on the street at this hour. Everyone knows each other here and she doesn’t really want to be seen with three people carrying weapons and clearly Marked. They reach her house and she opens the door slowly.

“Aunt? I’m sorry I took so long I…” she looks back to the others “I ran into some friends”

“Meira” the voice of a woman comes from behind the door at the other side of the room “You know I can only see you once- oh” the woman stops in the threshold with a smile.

“These are my friends” Meira starts saying, she feels the others still behind her.

“So you found her” the woman says “I hoped that the Shadows had just failed and reacted to Meira’s powers”

“Marisa, so it was you” Kylem says. They all move to stand beside Meira instead of behind her.

“What are you talking about? Do you know each other?” Meira asks.

“She is with the Empire. One of the higher ups I would say” Rakan answers.

“Oh boy you flatter me. And I did it all while having to babysit a problematic child”

“Hey!” Meira protests but no one pays attention to her.

“Give her back her memories Marisa” Rakan says, his voice has a dangerous tone to it.

“And exactly why would I do that?”

“Because she knows the truth now and your little play is over” Kylem answers her.

“Maybe I’ll do it, if you do something for me”

“And you think we will agree?” Kylem asks, it doesn’t sound friendly.

“Obviously, or she won’t be able to remember anything, and we don’t want that, do we?”

“What do you want?” Meira asks, harsh. She wants to know; she needs to know the truth. Her whole life seems to be coming apart and honestly, she doesn’t know if she wants to scream, cry or hit something but she can’t do that now. She has to deal with what’s in front of her, she will deal with the consequences later. She has always prided herself in being able to grasp situations fast and adapting quickly, this time is not going to be different.

“The crystal” her aunt, or who was pretending to be her aunt says, looking at her chest. The necklace Rakan had given her rests there, she had put it on after the boy left without it so she wouldn’t lose it. She wraps her hand around it.

“Why?”

“Well, I can’t really tell you everything you want to know, right? You’ve always asked too many questions. Now give it to me and I’ll give you all your pretty memories with the dragon”

Meira reaches to the back of her head to untangle the necklace, but a pair of hands stop her.

“Mei, wait” She turns around, Rakan is looking at her with concern.

“I already got the power from it, right? She can’t do anything with it then” Meira says.

“Yes, but maybe she has a plan? We should think about it better”

Meira finishes taking the necklace off, “It’s my memories, and my powers, I decide what to do with it”

“But you don’t yet understand what she could do-“ Kylem stops talking when Meira turns to Marisa, ignoring them. The woman is looking at them with an amused smile on her lips.

“Do we have a treat then?” she asks. Meira walks until she is right in front of her and offers the necklace.

“Do it”

Meira feels Marisa’s hands on the sides of her head, her eyes piercing through hers as if she is looking deeply into her mind. Everything is quiet then, the others holding their breaths for what’s about to happen and then a snap and as if a door broke down inside her head, memories start flowing Meira’s mind. She half feels like she is screaming and Marisa’s hands disappearing. She falls to her knees and now there are arms holding her. She looks at Rakan but she doesn’t see him, she only sees memories. A small dark dragon not bigger than a dog playing in a field. She sees a small tanned kid with a Mark under his eye. An enormous and majestic dragon sitting with the small boy between its claws. She sees her lost memories and at the end of it all, the attack.

She hugs Rakan close to her.

“My small lizard” she whispers. Rakan hugs her harder and she knows he is smiling. She pushes back and takes the first good look at him. He is big, and strong, his shoulders wide and almost twice the size of Kylem. She furrows her brow then “Jeremiah?” she asks

“He was old” Rakan answers with a sad smile. Meira understands him. He did not die from age, he was just old enough to fight on the war “Let’s get back home”