When morning came the servants came in earlier than usual, they drew me a warm bath and reluctantly I followed, they then brought me breakfast and as promised, a kefta. The kefta was black in colour with golden and black stitching that was a little bit lighter than the kefta itself, Rena put it on and didn't see how this could be bulletproof, it was light and soft to the touch.

When she was ready two guards came and escorted her to a clearing in the forest by the little palace where the Darkling was waiting, they then left. "I'm afraid that I won't be as much help to you with the light as I am with the shadows, unfortunately," he said to her.

"Why, why are you teaching me to use it, I don't want to, I can't" I questioned him.

"You may not want to, but I also don't want you blinding any more of my soldiers" he answered.

I looked down at my feet, "That was an accident"

"You don't seem very sorry that it happened" he said, the corners of his mouth slightly tugging upwards.

"Probably because I'm not" I muttered to myself, "Can we just get on with this"

"First I have a question for you can you control your gift?" He asked me.

I scoffed "Gift?? You call this a gift, more like a curse, didn't your so called 'gift' give each and every one of you a death sentence only a few years ago, yeah some gift that is."

"Can you control it, yes or no" he pressed.

"No" I answered reluctantly.

"Then we better get started, shall we?"

The training was excruciating, I was forever contradicting myself, my abilities seemed to only show when I was touching the Darkling, and even then whenever I called upon one of them the other would get in the way, causing me to lose focus.

I loathe when I had to let him touch me, his touch made me feel tense and uncomfortable, worst of all when a surge would come from me I would slump back, drained, but he was always behind me, holding me.

"Relax" he would chide me, but that was easy for him to say, he wasn't scared that if he made a wrong move or said the wrong thing that he would be cut down or thrown to the volcra.

Hours past and still we were training, and the Darkling didn't look as if he had any intention of stopping soon, "You're holding back" he said when I was catching my breath.

Crouched over, hands on my knees, I merely just looked at him, not finding the energy to answer.

"Suppressing your abilities doesn't do you any good, it only makes you weaker, and wiery," he told me.

"How would you know," I asked duly, how would a man who had embraced everything I had been thought to hate, know of suppressing his abilities.

"Your mother was the same, didn't embrace her full potential, left her weak and sickly looking" he was staring at the setting sun, careful not to meet my gaze.

The mention of my mother hung in the air, I had never known her, or have anyone mention her before, I had always presumed both my parents dead but now staring at my so-called 'father' I didn't know what to believe, was she also alive? And if so why wasn't she here? I took the opportunity, "Is she-"

"Alive? Probably, here? No"

My head was flooding with questions, but I settled on one, "What was her name?" I asked him.

He looked at me as if I was the stupidest person in the world, "Do they teach you anything in Shu Han? Your mother was Grisha, and a powerful one, that is all you need to know, now again, call the light"

I stared at him, it was such a simple question yet here he was dismissing the very thought of her as if it were a traitorous crime.

He sighed seeing my confused expression, "You'd do well not to talk of your mother here, she was a deserter and a traitor, we tend not to speak of her"

"But what did she do?" I asked curiously.

"That's enough," he said coldly.

"But-"

He gave me a stern hard look and my voice stopped, I hated myself for that, I hate that I couldn't be my normal rebellious self around him.

He sighed "I must get back to the palace, I'll send for someone to fetch you when we do this again"

I didn't realize it but I must have groaned, "Don't sound too excited" he smirked, "Your lessons with the other Grisha start tomorrow, I'll send for Genya to show you around"

He started to walk off and I realized he was waiting for me, reluctantly I got up and we headed back to the little palace.

We mostly walked in awkward silence apart from when he would point out the occasional thing or tell me the name of someone who would pass by, I still had so many questions about my mother, what had she done? And where was she? I now knew better than to ask him so I decided to wait until he was in a better mood or see if anyone else would tell me.

When we got back to the little palace a Grisha in a red kefta with blue embroidery was waiting for us, the Darkling introduced us and then left, her name was Genya and she was the most beautiful person I had ever seen, her vibrant hair was the colour of fire and fell gracefully around her shoulders, her skin was smooth and her eyes were indescribable.

We were walking towards the lake when she said, "You don't talk much do you, or are you shy, or afraid because there's no need to be afraid of me, the worst I can do is deform your eyes" she laughed.

"I'm not afraid of you" I answered quietly, it was a half-lie, I was more afraid of how fast things were moving rather than her, I wasn't ready for all this, all I wanted was to go home, to my small little house with my adoptive parents and forget that any of this happened.

She regarded me with kind eyes, "Well you seem afraid," She laughed again.

"I'm not afraid, I'm just- I don't belong here" I sighed.

Genya stopped walking and looked into the distance, she sighed, "Your mother thought the same when she was here, always feeling like she didn't fit in, always the odd one out"

I took this as an opportunity, "You two were, close?" I questioned her carefully.

"Very"

"What was she like?"

"She was-" Genya seemed to snap back to reality and broke her gaze from the setting sun, "You know, you almost got me, didn't your father tell you we tend not to speak of her here?"

"He's not my father"

She arched a brow at me, a bell rang across the lake and children ran out laughing and talking, a few of the older ones paused and stared at me and then started whispering to their friends, "That's the school, where most of your classes will take place" Genya told me, "What are you, 9, 10?"

I looked at her, bewildered, "I'm 15."

"15!?" She repeated, shocked, "Well you're very, erm, malnourished"

She showed me more rooms like the library, and the quickest way to my room, the Materialki workshops where she said a quick hello to someone named David who grunted back, and the doors to the Corporalki training area, which she told me to steer clear of unless of course, I wanted to be another one of their 'How long can so and so survive without their heart beating' volunteers, (spoiler alert I didn't) when she looked at her watch and realized that we were late for dinner.

She was walking in when I realized there were other people in there too, I don't know why but I thought that everyone would be done eating and gone by now, but alas they weren't.

I half walked, half ran over to a tall plant by the side of the door and hid behind it, Genya was about to walk in before she noticed I was no longer by her side. "Rena?" She asked looking around, she saw me by the plant, "What are you doing, come out from there" She scolded walking over to me, "What's wrong?" She asked, I glanced into the domed hall and she noticed what was wrong.

She sighed, "Fine, let's go before someone see's us, I'll call for a tray to your room"

"I'm not hungry," I replied.

"Well that's a lie if I've ever heard one" She laughed "And I was also told to either make sure you eat or force you to, and I don't know about you but I'd rather the first option"

I nodded and she led me to the stairs, we were about to go up when someone caught up to us, "Genya, Genya wait", I thought I recognized the person calling her but I couldn't quite place him, "He needs to see you" He told us.

"Of course he does" She muttered under her breath, "Rena this is-"

"Your the man from the tent, the one who chased me" I didn't mean to cut across Genya, "Sorry," I told her.

"No, you're fine. You two have met?" She questioned him.

He laughed, "Ah yes, we had quite the first encounter, but please call me Fredyor"

I eyed him cautiously, Genya spoke up, "Fredyor could you please lead her to her room and call for a dinner tray, I don't think Rena here quite feels up to dine with everyone else today" She winked at me and then left leaving me and Fredyor just standing in front of each other.

"You mustn't judge me on that first time we met," he said leading me up the stairs, "I didn't know how you would react when you first woke up, and I must say you packed quite the punch" He laughed.

"Sorry," I told him, I didn't feel sorry, it just seemed like the right thing to say.

"Oh no need to feel bad," He said with a friendly smile, "Just don't go around telling everyone a little girl managed to outrun me" He winked.

"I'm not a little girl"

"Ah yes, 15 I heard, you're quite small for 15 aren't you?"

"Do you always judge people on how they look?"

"Not always"

We walked on in silence for a while, going up step after step, "They really had to put me on the third floor" I managed in between breaths.

"This is a walk in the park compared to Botkin's training sessions" Fredyor explained.

"Who's Botkin?" I asked.

"You'll find out tomorrow," He said, "You should try eating with everyone else for breakfast, make a few friends your age"

"Which age is that, 9?" I laughed, as we stopped outside my door.

To my surprise he laughed too, "Summoners sit on the right" He told me opening my door for me, "Someone will come with your dinner, goodnight", and with that, he was gone. As promised a maid came with my dinner and I ate in silence and reflected on the day.

I was a failure as a summoner, both shadow, and sun, and it still seemed as though I would never get to go home, but at least there seemed to be some nice people here, don't get attached, I chided myself, once I got the opportunity I was going to leave, but it mightn't hurt to learn to control my abilities, that way at least I wouldn't hurt anyone, not unless I wanted to.

Hey everyone, thanks to each and every one of you for reading this far, I thought I'd let you know I have about 10 more chapters in drafts that I'm going to publish about once a week every Friday so I can give myself some time to prepare other chapters.

I hope you're enjoying this story so far, it's my first one so feel free to leave any constructive criticism. Don't forget to vote and comment.

~Sarah (PoshStarfish775)