Fractured Soul

Chapter 10: Shattered Peace

June faded away to a hot July, which gave way to stormy August. Thunder and rain was common, but it had no effect on the burnt-looking landscape of Berna. Mella's daily life after the day training with Myra had fallen into a simple routine.

Every morning Mella would get up and get dressed. She would eat breakfast with Myra, and either go work on fire magic with Rei or stay and work with weapons with Myra. Mella could use throwing daggers and shuriken well and Myra was teaching her how to use long knives, "In case someone gets too close."

Myra's training at times felt really slow. Mella apparently had no past memories of ever being taught how to use a weapon. Rei's training, on the other hand, went very fast. It felt like as soon as Rei showed Mella something 'new,' memories and images would run through her mind, and she would instantly remember. Slowly, bits of her life before whatever happened to her started to piece itself together, as long as it had to do with fire.

The people of Berna had eventually gotten used to Mella. They didn't shy away from her like she was a wild animal, and they would talk to her sometimes. They still didn't trust Mella, but Mella didn't blame them. The only people that really trusted her were Myra and Rei. But Mella did have to admit, life was better than it was.

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"Great Mella! You can use those really well now. I want to show you something new now."

Mella was training with Myra. Both of them were inches from each other. Mella had both daggers aimed for Myra's throat. The only thing stopping them was the staff Myra was holding.

They broke free from each other and put their weapons away. Myra went to a box sitting on a shelf while Mella went and sat on a cushion waiting. The box is new…wonder what I get to learn now!

Myra shut the box and came back, and sat down on another cushion lying on the floor. She was holding twin daggers, but these were different than the ones Mella had trained with. While the daggers she ordinarily used were nothing special, the ones Myra was holding looked as if they were made of glass and hid something powerful.

"Myra, what are these?" Mella asked.

"These, Mella, are elemental daggers. You can channel you magic into them, like this."

Myra gripped a dagger’s handle. After a couple of seconds, Mella noticed around the blade it appeared to flicker and glow like a dying fire. The flickering died instantly when Myra set down the dagger and its twin. Mella picked them carefully. Even though they looked as delicate as glass, they were heavy.

"Just channel magic into them. Pretend you're making a small fireball."

Mella squeezed the handle and willed fire to appear in her hands. Almost immediately, the blade of the dagger lit into being, brighter and more powerful than Myra's.

A headache flared to life, blocking everything else out with a wave of pain. Mella gasped and blinked. She wasn’t sitting in Myra's training studio anymore…

"We don't really use these anymore. Ivadona has been peaceful as long as anyone can remember."

She was looking down at a blade as clear as a window pane. She had stumbled into a storeroom that she had never been in and saw the dagger. The boy that was taking her to train with Bri, an earth elemental with startling green eyes, had allowed the detour, but wanted to get her to Bri as soon as possible. Probably so he can go sleep some more or get breakfast, she thought.

The rest of the vision was a repeat, and Mella hated it. It was the attack on the temple, the twins blasting her and Bri into darkness…

Mella thought it was over, but it flashed to another familiar scene: Mella fleeing from Myra's people chasing her into the night, then nothing…