A smoke billowed in the red night sky. It emanated from the castle below. Red flames burst. From every window and every door, the flames intensified. New air gave it life. The fire grew. It engulfed. Ash remained.
A small girl watched from the safety of the forest adjacent. The warm reds, oranges, and yellows reflected in her amethyst eyes as the flames danced in the gusts of wind that blew around her long, disheveled cherry amber hair and a window on an upper level of the castle shattered, barely heard over the roaring fires that seared the stone walls. Dozens of bodies burnt black laid motionless on the cobbled stone streets.
A hand squeezed her small shoulder. A young man stood behind her. She looked up at him. His azure eyes showed her nothing but calm, but his breaths sounded like wheezes and ash and soot covered his once pure white robes. He shook his head. Frowned. He settled a large leather bag on his shoulder then stepped back.
The girl looked on at the burning castle. The fire burned and the smoke billowed and glass shattered and stone crumbled and people screamed and shrieked and ran and the girl stood there at the edge of the forest, powerless to do anything but watch.
Yet. The girl couldn't leave. Her face grew red from the heat. The girl held her small knit bag close to her chest. She held everything she had left in her eight-year-old hands. In less than an hour, her home and her family burned.
Five more minutes passed.
The girl bit her lower lip. Blood trickled, mixing with streams of tears. She spun around. Nothing would happen no matter how long she stood there. She was powerless. The young man took her hand and led her into the forest.
The Castle City of Orteia fell that day.
YOU ARE READING
Apprentice of the Archmage
FantasyOne day, her Master left. In his place, a letter and a note. "Study at the Academy. I will meet you when the time comes." The girl, who knows nothing about magic, sets off to become her Master's apprentice at the Innis Magic Academy. To find out hi...
