Sparks

Part 2 On the Road

I didn’t sleep at all that night.

My meagre pack of belongings seemed pitiful compared to my journey ahead and I discovered I had practically nothing to aid in my life as an Attacker. Everything I’d collected and accumulated over the years had been based on the assumption that I would one day join my sisters as a Crafter. Last night, I’d spent hours staring dejectedly at my bedroom wall whilst my sisters bustled around me, chattering excitedly and bundling up my clothes for the journey ahead.

“Imagine! My little sister! An Attacker!” Ingrid had mused enthusiastically and I felt my face fall even farther at the words, physically exhausted by the task of holding back my tears. Lorelei – the eldest of us four – noticed my downcast expression and set about chasing the others out of the room, before sitting delicately on the end of my bed.

“Look – I know it’s not what you wanted but just imagine the adventures and fun you’ll have!” she said, trying to animate me but I refused to respond. There was nothing fun about being an Attacker.

“I don’t want adventures!” I finally blurted out “I want to be a Crafter and stay here and maybe someday get my own workshop…”

With Darryl.

“But Fate dealt you a different hand of cards and Fate knows better than all of us. Maybe you’ll enjoy it if you stop moping!” she squeezed next to me on the bed and nudged me. I tugged the scratchy linen covers over my head, defiantly.

“Well, you’d be moping if you found out you’d been stuck with the worst skill possible!” I shouted, my voice surely muffled behind the fabric. I heard her sigh and then waver, as wondering whether to tell me something.

“Darryl found his soul mate, by the way”

At her words, I froze and allowed her to peel the covers off my face, her words like needles to my ears. His soul mate? But how? I felt a surge of sadness at the certainty that he could never be mine. I’d had it all planned out. Not that it was possible now I was an Attacker and had to live in a different town, maybe in a different land…

“Why are you telling me this?” I asked, trying to disguise how badly I’d been affected by her statement. Her perceptive eyes filled with an unbearable sympathy.

“Well I know you were hoping that you still might be his soul mate…” she stammered out awkwardly and I felt humiliated. So Lorelei knew. And if she knew, so did the rest of my sisters. And they’d probably been talking behind my backs about it. My face burned with embarrassment.

“No I wasn’t!” I lied and my words turned irate “And even if I was, what did you think you’d achieve by telling me that? Drive me away even more so I’m not in your way – so that I don’t shame you all by turning skillless and refusing to go? Well, congratulations! It worked.”

After my furious outburst, I leapt off the bed and grabbed the pack they’d prepared for me, retrieving my tin of watercolours and sketchpad from my desk before shoving them in my bag as well. I knew they would have no place in my new world but I couldn’t let go of them. Maybe I could still be a Crafter in some small way.

I whirled around in the doorframe to see my sister still frozen on my bed, staring at me with those sad, apologetic eyes. And for some reason that seemed to anger me even more.

“There’s still a couple more hours until sunrise” she said quietly.

“Well I’m most certainly not spending them here!” I yelled as I swivelled on my heel and marched out. I snatched a navy cloak off the hooks by the door and pulled it on, jerking the hood over my head. And without another word, I stormed out.