Fated Volition (#Wattys2015)

Chapter Two

It obviously was not a good day.

She had a nervous feeling in her stomach. Every day that she got closer to sixteen, the more she felt like something huge was going to happen. She just couldn't quite put her finger on it. Ryhan was about to head back outside to wait on her father when her mother grabbed her hand and motioned for her to sit in the chair next to her.

"Did I ever tell you about the night you were born?" She asked.

Ryhan just nodded in reply, she had been retelling the event like a bedtime story for as long as she could remember.

"I know you think that it is just a story that I have created for you about magical stars that fall from the sky, in faraway lands. However, it is all true. All of it. What I have never told you is that...I was not alone. About half way through my pregnancy, an unbelievably beautiful woman came here and told me about a war that was coming and how my child... you darling, was destined for great things.

"She asked me to accompany her to Bastriean, to a meeting between leaders of the magical community. I'd never even left Resteir, but something in my heart told me to go." She said.

Her mother sat on the edge of her chair looking troubled and confused. Ryhan waited for her to continue, but she watched as she stood up and started pacing the room back and forth.

Suddenly she rushed to her side and whispered in Ryhan's ear, "There is something I have kept secret from you and your father. Something very important, so you must listen carefully."

Her mother was worried, more worried than she had ever seen her. It caused creases in her once beautiful face, which had become aged from the sun and hard labor in the field. Every now and then, when she let her hair down, her blue eyes would shine. When she really laughed, her whole face lit up and her beauty returned, even if only for a few moments.

"When Ava came to me I knew he would never allow me to go, so I left, against your father's wishes. There were four other expecting mothers, who journeyed with us. We became very close. It was strange, as if one heartbeat connected us all. And when we arrived, tired and very largely with child, we gave birth the same night, at the same time.

"The most wondrous thing happened. As we were giving birth, a star crashed right through our ceiling. They took the pieces away before I had a chance to look at them more closely, but it looked as if some sort of blue stone resided in the middle. Three of the mothers passed due to difficult childbirth and I felt as if I had lost three sisters. A deep pain and ache that has never left me." She paused, caught up in her story, and looked as though she was thinking intensely about something.

Ryhan placed a hand over hers, "Mother, what is it you're trying to tell me? This doesn't make much sense to me." It really was very confusing and a sense of foreboding washed over her.

Her mother continued, "After you were born, they told me that you had been blessed with some sort of power. A gift of the elements. They wanted to send you away, to raise you in some distant land. I started to panic. Ava told me it would be the best thing for you, that you would be well trained and taken care of. But... I just couldn't let you go."

She began crying hysterically and Ryhan wrapped her arms around her hoping to be of some comfort. Unsure of what she could say, or how to process what her mother was telling her, she just sat with her while she quietly sobbed. The stress from having to leave their home must have been affecting her mother terribly. Ryhan thought she should probably go and find her father, he would know what to do.

Assuring her mother she would be back soon, she walked outside and took in large gulps of air. Her lungs exploded with pain, she felt as if she had been holding her breath the entire time her mother was talking to her. None of it could be true, how could it be, falling stars and magical powers. What powers? She had never experienced anything that she would consider magical.