Wars of the Mind sneak peak

Chapter 1

"So which song are you going to sing, Maeveen?" Navana asked as she dipped her fingers into the mud and brought it to the young girl's hair, pulled another thick strand into the tight tiny braid. The room was lit only through the tiny window facing west where the sun slowly set. Kala sat to their left, sitting on the dirt mattress biting at her fingernails.

Maeveen giggled, "You keep trying to get me to tell you. Don't be nosey."

"Funny you say that, Maeveen. You're the nosiest person I've ever met" Nava said with a smile. Her little sister turned her head upwards, her eyes staring into Nava's, slightly offended.

"Am not! Mama said you can't be mean to me today."

"Mama's not here."

"I'll tell her."

"You against me and Kala? Kala, tell her you're on my side."

"Stupid girls. Stop bickering. Nava, Maeveen gets this day once in her life. Now shut up."

"Damn Maeveen didn't know you needed a bodyguard," Nava replied as she drew in another thin piece strand of coiled hair.

"I do not. I bet you that I could fight off you, Kala, and Kalo at the same time and still win," Maeveen said smiling and stomping her feet against the floor with excitement.

"Hold still or you'll loosen the braid," Navana sighed, pulling at both sides to tighten them once more.

"Also you know that Aecrolda said that one should never lie," Kala said with a smirk.

"I'm not lying. This lousy town will be an empire by the time I join the stars."

"An empire, huh?" Kala said, unamused and still staring at her dirty nail bed.

"This place is shit. Nobody could turn it into anything but a hot wasteland. Not even the gods themselves. You will all see me in the capital. I'll be the one to free us all," Nava said, smoothing down Maeveen's curls. The sun hovered over Rokuma Hill.

"You'll die trying, you mean," Kala said.

"Yeah, and what about Maeveen's empire?"

"The Kekachi will bend their knee to me. And I'll keep them locked up in a small village miles away from their loved ones. See how they like it," Maeveen huffed before crossing her arms. Kala raised an eyebrow and Nava smiled at her.

"First of all, you're going to put all 500,000 of them in one village? Second, you don't have any loved ones outside of Kuvarai," Kala replied. Always the pessimist. Gods damn let the ten-year-old girl dream, Nava thought as she lightly glared at Kala.

"You know what I mean," Maeveen said, staring at the Orange Plumeria flowers beside her feet. Navana grabbed the last chunk of hair at Maeveens crown and began intertwining it into the other braids, weaving it in between the nine braids. She maneuvered it so that the braids looked both thick and the hair longer. The hair was slick with mud and lifted Maeveen's eyebrows as she pulled on the last strands of hair.

"I can't believe you're already joining the Nine. The baby of the family," Nava said, making sure she enunciated the word "baby".

Maeveen smiled, "Yeah I can't believe it. And I'm not a baby."

"Not anymore.," Kala said.

"Maeveen,"

"Whaaaat, Nava,"

"Choose Molding. It's the most useful power to have enhanced, think about it. Instead of just molding wood like every other sad sack, you can mold metals and crap like that. The two of us both having that ability? We'd be unstoppable."