The Orders of Ash and Veil

CHAPTER ONE

The sounds of silverware clinking together are not enough to distract me from what’s to come.

I’ve gone and done it again.

I’ve made Zavien mad. But he’s not showing it.

Mother congratulates Verena on another achievement I’ve lost track of while father makes small talk with my brother, Zavien.

No one is asking any questions. Well, I don’t expect them to considering I’m the only powerless person at this table. Father thinks it’s a bad omen. Mother thinks I’ve failed as an Everstorm child, because apparently, the ability to read people’s minds is a small feat unworthy of any attention. It’s actually true though considering I have to actually come in contact with the person I want to read the memories of and I get only fragments of it.

Worthless.

The scraping of Zavien’s chair across the floor has everyone’s attention. He neatly folds his napkin and drops it on the table excusing himself. He glances at me before leaving. I’ve lost my appetite. I get up and follow him but no one pays me any heed.

I walk with my eyes trained to the floor as I navigate my way to the library that’s also a makeshift training room for Zavien. No one goes in without his permission. No one goes out. He’s at the door, waiting. He holds it open for me and with trembling hands I walk in. He shuts the door. I can hear my heartbeat thundering in my chest and my knees are shaking but I try to keep myself still. We’ve done this a thousand times already. I’m used to it.

That’s what I repeat to myself like it’s a mantra.

I’m used to it

I’m used to it

I’m used to –

“ Sera...” He breaks my trance.

I try my best to keep my voice steady, my eyes still trained to the floor.

“Yes–”

“You hold your head way too high for my liking.”

Before the words have fully left his mouth, I’ve gone on my knees already, face to the floor. This is always humiliating and degrading. Every time.

But you get used to it. Is what I want to believe.

“Funny how you immediately grovel when I ask you to.” He muses, his voice dripping with amusement. “Don’t you have standards?” He’s speaking like I have a choice.

“Raise your head.” he commands.

I do so reluctantly and quietly suck in a breath. He’s taking off his gloves.

No, no, not again.

He pockets them and puts his hand on the hilt of his sword. That damn sword. It’s as thin as a needle but hurts like hell.

“Ok now here’s what we’re going to do. I’ll ask a question and you answer. Simple.” I wish.

“Just...”, his gaze darkens “...don’t lie to me.”

I swallow hard remembering the incident from today– the strictly off limits book I had accidentally pried into.

“ Did you really think I wouldn’t notice?”

“ I– I didn’t know.”

He tsks and shakes his head.

“Wrong answer.”

Before I have another word out, he’s drawn his blade and he’s pushing it through my stomach with agonizing slowness, taking his precious time cause he knows. He knows I’ll be fine.

Unfortunately my screams fall on deaf ears cause no one can hear me. Not because we’re deep underground or anything, but because of him. His barrier is up and it’s basically sound proof. Visible on the inside, not so much on the outside. I couldn’t even run if I tried. I’m trapped in here with him for who knows how long.

He pulls it out with the same slow precision he used to put it in, before resting the bloody tip on the ground and waiting. I curl up on my side in agony but Zavien turns me around, making me lie flat on my back.

“Don’t hide. I want to see it.” He murmurs.

My blood pools around me staining the floorboards, before it begins. I feel the agonizing pull of my tendons attaching back, joining at where they’d been torn. The muscles weave themselves back together and my flesh regrows. Within moments, I’m back to normal almost like nothing ever happened in the first place.

Regeneration.

My hidden ability that causes extreme pain whenever it activates. It’s the ability no one else knows I have. Zavien discovered it by accident now he uses it for his own personal entertainment. It’s the perfect blackmail. I can’t tell anyone cause there’s no evidence to show for it. No one would ever even believe me and I’d be putting myself at risk of being caught.

“That took longer than usual. Why’s that?”, He asks with this innocent voice that doesn’t belong to him. The one he uses when everyone is present. The fake.

“I– I think it’s because..I didn’t eat, so I’m weak”, I manage to say.

“ That’s too bad. Here I thought we’d be in the third round”. My eyes widen in horror.

Third?!

He shrugs.

“Oh well.”

He lifts the sword, the blade shining in the sunlight.

“We’ll just make the most of what we have.”

He drives the blade into me relentlessly, puncturing flesh before the muscle can even think of knitting back together. Each thrust hurts more than the last cause he’s disrupting the healing process.

After what feels like an eternity, he pulls back and looks out the window. The sun is setting.

He lets out a low curse.

“Dammit I’m late”, he says to himself and looks at me. I’m still healing so he takes a moment to think before sighing.

“I’m late for a class so unfortunately we have to end this right here, right now. But don’t worry...next time”. He says it so casually like it’s normal. Then he brings out a hand towel and wipes the blood from his sword before sheathing it.

He lets down his barrier and walks out of the room without sparing me another glance. My clothes are ruined now. I have to change. Mom is not gonna be happy. As usual.

I struggle to stand and make my way out of the library. I use the walls to steady myself as I find my way to my room.

Regenerative or not, blood loss could kill me. Zavien should know that.

Maybe he does. He just doesn’t care.

I grimace at the thought as I reach my room. I open the door and walk in, locking it behind me. My room is average but compared to Verena or Zavien?..it’s miniscule. The more talented the child, the greater the privileges. I don’t have anything in this room that reminds me of me. Only books with dead covers that are visible. Decorating is a hassle and it’s not tolerated in this household. Even if in reality I would love to decorate it in my embroidery work.

I take off my blood stained clothes and put them in a pile which I’ll burn later. I walk to my window and look down. Below my older sister, Verena stands alone in the training field with a wooden target in front of her. She has no weapon of any kind, just her, herself and the wind.

I watch as she fists her hands at her sides and crimson flames dance around her finger tips gaining intensity as they glow brighter, threatening to burn anyone within a three meter radius from her.

She raises her hand and opens it ever so slightly, the flames coiling around themselves melting at the edges to form an orb of pure heat. It hovers in her palm for a moment before she aims it at her target and releases it, incinerating every bit of carved wood until nothing but ash drifts into the wind.

Her flames are every bit terrifying yet beautiful . Very, very beautiful. Her flames represent the exact thing I’ve always lacked: something that proves I belong.

I sigh and rest my head against the window as I recall what had been drilled into me since I was born.

Every Everstorm activates their resonance at the age of seven. You won’t be any different.

Both Verena and Zavien had awakened their resonance at seven so everyone assumed I would too...

They were wrong.

When I was five, father bought my first sword in case I’d be on offense like Verena.

When I turned six, mother had made plans to hire a private tutor for me to train, in case I turned out like Zavien, with a barrier that could one day fail and cause trouble if I wasn’t properly prepared.

At seven...everything fell apart.

I hadn’t activated yet. Father assured mother that maybe next year.

Eight years. Still nothing. Maybe I’m just a little late.

Nine...and they stopped asking. Stopped caring.

They distanced themselves from me, avoiding me at all costs. They thought I was one of them. The Silent because I didn’t have the voice of a resonance. But more than anything, I think they were scared. Of what? I don’t know but they weren’t going to tell me.

They hid me at home, never letting me out of my room whenever a visitor was around. I never knew why, later I lost interest. Then at twelve, it happened.

I awakened one. A resonance. Mind reading. But I was not in the least bit excited. I believed I had nothing. That I was A Silent forever, but I was just a late bloomer, that didn’t awaken on time and it wasn’t even something to brag about.

I really shouldn’t call myself an Everstorm. It’s degrading to the family name.

Moving from the window, I watch as Verena walks towards the destroyed target then stops midway, turning around, a flash of pale blue hair flowing like silk in the wind and trailing behind her, her eyes following someone as they walk towards her. Then I see it, just a glimpse but enough. The violet hair that catches my attention before any other thing.

Zavien.

What does he want?

He and Verena aren’t really in that talking phase so what’s his deal?

For a split second Verena looks irritated, before she hides it under a mask of indifference. He stops a few feet away from her, aware that if he moves any closer she can and probably will burn him to smithereens. Even he has his limits.

She stares at him for a moment before nodding at whatever it is he says.

Odd. Verena has never listened to anything Zavien has said before, only when...there’s a family meeting. I wonder what the problem is.

She abandons her wooden target and follows Zavien as he walks back into the house.

The sun is nearly gone now, painting the sky in shades of orange, yellow and purple. Watching the sun set has always been one of the few things that has kept me grounded. That reminds me that even though I’m considered the weakest, tomorrow, for a moment, when I’m training alone, in secret, I can believe that I’m strong even if it’s only for a little while.