Inheritance - The Dark Sorcerers: Book 1

Chapter 18: Two Sides of the Same Coin

"I do." I had come across this tale while reading. According to my books, the First Dark Child—a boy—had been born many centuries ago. Soon after his birth, strange things had started to happen around him: healthy flowers withered within a day, animals went mad and attacked people, and so on. Because of that, the local shaman had tried to kill him. However, the child's Dark magic had killed the shaman instead and the boy himself had mysteriously disappeared afterwards. Many years later, he had returned to his birth village as an adult and had slaughtered the villagers as an act of revenge for the attempted murder.

For some reason, the legend of the First Dark Child had always fascinated me, but the Sisters had refused to elaborate on the topic apart from saying, That's when all of our problems started.

"The First Dark Child was born as a reaction against the predominance of Light in the world," Xia went on. "Many Light Sorcerers disagree with me on this, but that's because they're willingly blind. They refuse to open their eyes to the fact that it's their fault as much as the Dark Sorcerers' that the Darkness prevails. The more they cling to their Light, to the absoluteness of it, the more room they create for the Darkness to spread."

Now she was confusing the hell out of me. "But ... I don't understand. Are you saying that the Darkness shouldn't be eradicated?"

"My dear child, the prophecy never indicated that you should do such a thing." She stared wide-eyed at me. Her hand had crept up to her chest, as if my question had almost given her a heart attack. "It only requires for you to restore the balance. If you fail to do so, the Darkness will conquer whatever's left of the Light in this world and there will be no more balance, ever. Only chaos."

"And how do I restore the balance?"

"There can be no balance on the outside if there is no balance on the inside," she mused. "Find the balance between Light and Dark within yourself. Only then will you discover your true power."

Every word she said raised even more questions. "How can I balance my magic? I've only ever been allowed to use Light magic, so every time I use Dark magic, all hell breaks loose in my mind. I can barely control it," I admitted quietly. In the presence of the woman who had foreseen all, I felt more like a failure than ever.

Xia Jutín clicked her tongue in disapproval. "They still haven't learned," she grumbled. Her eyes softened when she looked at me, almost as if she pitied me.

I recoiled; I didn't want her pity. What did she even pity me for?

She sighed. "You cannot balance your magic if you have only known one side of it all your life. One cannot make a choice based on biased information. You will have to let in the Darkness, my child. Set it free. Travel to Vallinstra and join the other Dark Sorcerers. They will welcome you with open arms. Learn everything that there is to know about the Dark Side, just as the White Sisters taught you about the Light. Once you know both forms of magic as though they were extensions of your own body, and you succeed in gaining control over your Darkness, then you will be ready to fulfill your destiny."

The blood in my veins turned to ice, making the rest of my body feel numb. My mind made various attempts to wrap itself around all that new information, but none were successful. What was she talking about? Had I really traveled all this way, trying to stay within the Light and evading the Dark Sorcerers as much as possible, only to find out that my journey would lead me straight into their den? That couldn't be true. If I let my Darkness take over, I would destroy everything. I wouldn't be able to distinguish friend from foe.

She was wrong. She had to be.

Is she now?

Sometime during our conversation, Rowan's hand had slipped off my shoulder. I turned my head to look at him, an inexplicable fear seizing my heart in its iron grip. Would he abandon me now that he knew what I had to do? Would he turn his back on me?