It taunted her.
The damned insentient lump of rock – as she'd so fondly called it earlier. Only it wasn't any ordinary rock. This one would be deciding her fate or, in other words, what the hell she'd be doing for the rest of her life. Sixteen years had flown by, and now she was faced with the same ordeal her parents had gone through all those years ago.
The Test.
It wasn't just any test though. No. Nothing was done on paper, aside from the register to ensure they were all present. The Test was mandatory for everyone, and even if it wasn't people would still turn up. Why? Because they could become a mage, or even a dragon rider if they were fated to bond with an egg.
Fun.
Well, so long as you didn't turn out to be a complete dunce with no magic... exactly like her two parents had turned out to be... which meant there was a ridiculously high chance she'd turn out just the same. Either that or she'd end up with some ridiculously low-level brown magic which would earn her the same amount of teasing from her classmates.
She was colourless to them. She hadn't shown any proof of containing even a spark of magic, and that only added to her doubts.
"It'll be OK, Sora." Her mother smiled. "No matter what happens we'll always love you," she said, evidently having spied the way her daughter was eyeing up the so-called Stone of Fate.
It was a beautiful piece, Sora had to admit as she silently admired the sheer detail the glass-like stone had been shaped into. The lump of rock was clear like glass and had been made to look like a dragon cracking out of its egg... and soon it'd be deciding what the hell she'd be doing for the rest of her life.
Her father grinned, clapping her on the back. "Besides... if anyone gives you any trouble, then you have my permission to beat them to a bloody pulp."
Sora was no weakling. Magic shields didn't stand for anything in the path of an enraged Sora, so much so, the adults of the town had eventually started calling her the human cannonball behind her back... and yet she still hadn't shown any sign of having any sort of magic. She hadn't expected it, but some small part of her had hoped for some form of magic to suddenly materialise from her. She'd even take brown.
But she knew her chances were slim, just like her parents did.
Still, that didn't stop her from hoping and praying that some miracle might occur and grant her an awesome colour, like green or yellow... she didn't dare imagine that she'd reach beyond that, if she even gained the lowest ranking on the scale of all things magical.
"You actually turned up?" The words yanked her out of her daydream, pulling her attention onto the girl standing in front of her.
Her parents had left her to go and wait outside only a few moments ago, and she was already face to face with one of the few people she actually enjoyed punching. She cursed her luck. It had never smiled on her.
Sora fought the urge to scowl. "Nice to see you too, Tabitha," she said, silently wondering why the hell she was being so polite.
Everyone knew about Tabitha Charleston, and her habit of picking on those she considered to be weaker than her. She got away with it too. People generally turned a blind eye to all of her troublemaking ways – mainly due to the fact her father was a mage. He was retired, but it didn't make people any more willing to cross him.
Sora was the exact opposite of her, in every way – including looks. Her hair was a dull boring brown, the same colour as the magic she was bound to get according to Tabitha, whilst hers was like gold. It wasn't really. It was an ordinary blonde, but Tabitha liked to brag one day she'd be able to use the fabled gold magic and her hair was apparently a sign.
"You're going to fail." Green clashed with grey as their eyes met, the air seeming the crackle with tension as they stared each other down. "I've told you before... green like grass, grey like thunderclouds... I'll always be above you."
Sora didn't bother to try and stop her eyes from rolling. Whether it be hair colour or eye colour, Tabitha always used it to try and irritate her. To be honest she had no idea why. The only times she'd ever got her annoyed, it'd ended up with her eating dirt and Sora owning the foot pushing her face into it. "How poetic," she muttered.
"Why'd you even bother to bring a suitcase?" Tabitha continued. "You know you'll only be heading straight back home."
"Thanks for the vote of confidence," she said, brushing past the annoying blonde, heading ever closer to the front of the hall where the Stone of Fate waited – ready to spill out the truth about her magic, or lack thereof.
She'd be lucky to get accepted to the school over in Fallsbrooke, let alone a place like Central City. That was the heart of the continent of Astal and it was home to some of the greatest mages who'd ever lived. Similar to how the Outer City was home to pretty much all of the greatest dragon riders who'd ever lived. Though dragon riders rarely mingled with anyone outside their base in the Astral Mountain Range.
"You'll do great, Sora-bear!" her mother called, waving at her as she went through the door, ignoring the snickers that rang around the room at her pet name.
Sora smiled, wandering to where the crowd of teens was gathering. "Thanks, mum," she whispered, holding her head high as she took her place at the back, fighting the urge to sigh in exasperation as Tabitha walked to her side.
"You're so going to fail."
"You've said that before."
"Aren't you going to be embarrassed?" she asked, leaning towards her.
"You know..." Sora turned, grinning at her annoying companion. "I could ask you the same thing."
Tabitha snorted. "I'll be fine... you on the other hand..."
"Go back to Crony Number One and Crony Number Two already, Tabby Cat. Whatever you're plotting won't work."
"I will," she sneered. "They're much better company."
"Glad to hear it," Sora said, patting her on the back as she sent her back to the group of friends she knew all too well.
Mainly from beating them up, but that wasn't really the point.
She'd have preferred not to have to beat them up in the first place.
She'd have also preferred to have shown some form of magic before she put her hand on the Stone of Fate, but apparently the universe didn't bother listening to any of her requests.
Sora doubted it'd start anytime soon, either, so she wasn't holding out too much hope.
Only those with green magic or above were in with a shot of heading to the Central City, and only those who lit up the little dragon cracking from its egg could go to the Outer City. Those were the places which housed the elites. Places for the gifted, which Sora wasn't.
Tabitha could make the temperature rise ever so slightly in her presence. Sora made her own temperature rise when she punched people in the face.
Tabitha was gifted with magic. All Sora had going for her was brute strength.
And that was the crux of the matter.
A loud clap startled her out of her thoughts, the sound echoing through the gigantic room inside the town hall. Despite being a small town, their tiny little council had gone overboard on what they considered to be the very heart of the town. White marble adorned the floor and the walls, forming the same columns supporting the ceiling which towered above their heads. Marble wasn't that expensive for them, considering it was mined from a nearby quarry. Besides, it was money well spent. The building had, after all, been listed as one of the most beautiful places in the entire Eastern Sector.
The redhead who'd clapped walked onto the plinth in the centre of the room was tall, her eyes flickering about the small crowd of teenagers waiting for her at the foot of the steps leading up to where she stood. "Right," she said, her soft voice echoing in the eerie silence which had fallen. "Kiddies, may I have your attention please?"
To which some smart mouth by the name of Raelynn replied, "no."
The same smart mouth soon found herself in a headlock. "That was meant to be a rhetorical question." She smiled, gesturing with her free hand to the clear shaped stone placed on its intricately woven metal stand atop the black slab of rock it rested on. "Now, we're going to be doing this in alphabetical order, so be patient, unless you want to find yourself like blondie over here," she said, tightening her grip on Raelynn's head. "I'll hand you over to my dear colleague here, who'll explain things in a bit more detail." Her hand waved over to the man waiting at the side of the room, smiling brightly at him as she released the blonde from her grip of death. "Pay attention, since he only explains things once."
"Might as well get started then..." he muttered, flipping back his hood, glaring around at the hopeful faces staring back at him. Instead of the grouchy old man Sora had been expecting to see under the hood, she was met with a man of around the same age as his partner – late twenties or early thirties – although he certainly didn't act like it. He folded his arms, only adding to the grouchy look, his hair fluttering slightly in the breeze drifting through the building. It was an inky black colour, half of it falling in a long fringe covering most of one side of his face, the rest tied back in a low ponytail. What was visible of his face seemed to be set to the permanently-angry-setting, angled brown eyes glaring out at all of the squirming sixteen-year-olds. Sora couldn't blame him – she'd be annoyed too if she had to deal with all of them. "When I call your name, come and place your hand on the stone. Depending on the colour displayed I'll give you a tag and tell you where you're going... if you're going anywhere at all, that is."
"One of the three lovely people behind us will have a tag corresponding to yours if you get one," the redhead explained, shooting a glare at her companion. "Give them a bit more information, Ethan... Honestly... you're nearly as bad as Oz..."
He remained stony-faced, staring right back at her, though his glare was half-ruined by the fringe of silky hair covering one eye. "Shut up."
The redhead grinned, muttering something which sounded something awfully like, "make me."
Ethan ignored her, turning a set of steely brown eyes back on the crowd in front of him. "If you don't get a tag, that means you're staying in your home and learning from your parents or whoever has a similar magic to you."
Tabitha shot a smirk her way.
"Let's see who's first..." Ethan said, unfurling the scroll he'd been carrying, peering at the first name. "Ellie Adams," he called, waiting and watching as a small mousy-haired girl crept out of the gaggle of teenage girls.
Sora bit her lip, waiting with bated breath as she watched the stone turn a bright blue colour. It was just one colour under green... which meant she was going to Fallsbrooke. She'd set the bar, and while it wasn't that high, it still wasn't a relief for her.
She wanted at least one person to get brown before her turn.
Maybe that way it'd be less embarrassing... especially if she didn't even get the stone to change colour.
"Tabitha Charleston."
The name snapped her out of her reverie, her eyes narrowing as she watched the girl prance up the steps and place one tan hand on the smooth glassy surface.
Internally, Sora cursed her to death as she saw the result.
She'd turned the stone red.
A bright crimson red.
Tabitha, the annoying bully, had red magic – the highest in the rainbow spectrum – and silently Sora wished she'd get white magic just so she could one-up the irritating girl. To add insult to injury, she hadn't just turned the glassy egg part that colour either. No. She'd turned the dragon red too... which meant she was a damn dragon rider as well.
She wouldn't hear the end of it.
Sora sighed, her shoulders slumping, dread pooling in her gut as she continued to stare intently at the stone. She watched as it turned a myriad of colours, some of them being brown, much to her own satisfaction, a few even reaching yellow magic. But they had yet to see a colour higher on the entire magic spectrum than red.
That was only to be expected.
In a town like theirs, with only a few people who'd once been mages in Central City, magic wasn't expected to be all that powerful... and the small groups behind the three people on the other side of the hall only proved that.
Prodigies tended to come from those born into mage or rider families, none of which lived in the Eastern Sector. Those kinds of people were lucky enough to live in one of the big cities... where the colours of red and yellow were average scores. Red magic wasn't all that powerful. Not when Sora compared it to someone who wielded white magic. But even then, a White was still a far cry away from those who stood at the very top – the Big Three.
Black, silver and gold.
Thankfully for her, not too many people could wield the scary gold magic which was rumoured to be able to wipe out an entire continent. Most of them lived in the North Sector too, in the city of dragon riders, a safe distance away from her. She'd been terrified of the top three classes of dragon riders ever since that day.
Her shudders didn't last for long, the sound of her name being called making her snap to attention, her heart thudding frantically in her chest as she forced her feet to move.
"Sora Williams."
She walked up the steps, eyeing the glassy stone warily. It was time.
"Put your hand on the stone." Ethan sighed. "We haven't got all day..." he trailed off, glaring at the small group still waiting for their names to be called. "And the rest of you lot can shut the hell up," he called, having heard the sniggers and hushed whispers as Sora walked closer.
Gingerly, she placed her fingertips against the cool surface.
No reaction.
Crimson tinted her cheeks.
"I said put your hand on it. Not just your fingertips, silly," Ethan said.
"OK," she mumbled, knowing it wasn't going to matter either way, but the sudden swirl of light that formed inside the clear stone shattered that thought.
She wasn't colourless.
She had a colour.
Which was apparently unable to make up its mind on what it wanted to be, because glowing back at her from the egg-shaped stone was a rainbow.