Dark Sun Rising

Chapter 1

The constant and woeful clatter of the train against the tracks both excited and unnerved Zari. She was leaning against the left window looking out into the Greywoods, which was covered in fog. Across the aisle, the right side opened up onto a normal, colored field of green. Lifting her hand, she wiped the condensation away, revealing the dense, gray forest outside, flashing by. The sky above was also gray, as was everything in the Greylands. The sight that would have scared the life out of a normal person fascinated Zari. She had always wanted to explore the Greylands and the myriad of creatures and mysteries they held. This train, however, was the closest she had ever gotten.

The legends of the Greylands, and those who braved them, had always charmed her more than anything else. Unlike people, stories never threw their ire at her. They didn’t expect her to be exceptional or ask her to repress herself. No. They accepted her the way she was. In the world of imagination, she could escape from anything and be anyone.

Zari’s peacefulness was interrupted when she felt a pair of eyes on her. She clasped her backpack and the book lying on her lap and buried herself further in her seat. It wasn’t an unfamiliar feeling for Zari. Though she was tall – tall for a twenty-four-year-old human – her demeanor said otherwise. From a very young age, she developed burning anxiety which forced her to shrink into her frame. Sweaty hands, restless legs, frequent head scratches, and inconsistent breathing became her companions. A lot of it stemmed from her childhood and the things she faced back then.

Belonging to the powerful Mystic al’Reda family meant she was going to be an exceptional member of society – unique and stronger than others. Everyone in her family was gifted with immense talent. Some could turn the tides, make the clouds shower, control the air and fire, heal the broken skin or mend the grief-stricken mind, but her? She was a blank carcass with not enough space to hold any talent. While others enjoyed having one or more abilities just right at the tip of their fingers, she got pushed into a corner.

The shadows of her remarkably gifted family members were so tall that she turned into a walking body of overwhelming emotions. Nobody had to tell her how hopeless she was with no magic at her disposal because her mind would always take the liberty to do so. For the longest time, she waited for her powers to come to her, but as years passed, she stopped altogether.

Accepting her flaw was the first step to a happy life – she thought. But it wasn’t quite so. It was why she took solace in books and video games – things that gave her the chance to be whoever she wanted and do what she liked. And so, she opened her favorite book – Dark Sun, and drowned her eyes in the pale pages among which she felt at ease. It was about a mercenary guild back in Antiquity. The leader, Isaac, was a real hero who stood up for the weak and fought evil to bring peace and equality to the world.

Usually, the words would take her all in, but something on the train didn’t let her concentrate. Her mind was being pulled toward everything else going on.

From the corner of her eye, Zari could see a little human girl playing with her rattle. She was sitting beside a lady dressed in a white knee-length dress with a coat over it. As the little girl started to throw a tantrum, the lady moved her into her lap. Zari began to feel a new edge of grief wash over her.

Unlucky – a word Zari familiarized herself with too often because of the way life had been treating her. The comfort of her mother, the warm hugs and kisses she could no longer have because life took her too. When Zari was a teenager, her mother passed away, leaving her all alone. Well, she wasn’t technically alone. Her elder brother Zayne and her father dedicated their lives to work. Though Zari had no powers, her brother was a skilled mystic of fire and air. His immense passion and love for fighting for justice got him recruited into the Mystic Forces of the Lyndon Army, their home country. As a teenager who had just lost her mother, Zari started looking up to her brother, but unfortunately, he didn’t feel the same about her.

“You should think about why this is happening to you,” he would say to Zari, reminding her that she was nothing close to what he was – a skilled fighter and commander of lightning magic.

Though he highly disapproved of Zari, she didn’t stop looking up to him. He was still her brother, and she loved him. But who loved her?

Who loved me, besides mom? She thought to herself, gazing at the mother-daughter sitting a few seats ahead of her. While she watched them Zari heard a buzzing sound coming from the booth right across from her where a short guy was hunched over the table. She lifted her head and scanned the train. Surprisingly, not many people were going to Lyndon. As Zari opened her book again and tried to focus, the guy moved his arm out. He was in the middle of tattooing his arm with a portable machine. Who tattoos themselves in public? Zari took a deep breath and started reading her book, trying to ignore the distracting noise.

The guy across her finished whatever he was tattooing on himself and leaned back in his chair. His wavy, afro-style hair made him look like a grown-up, but when Zari looked up for a second, she was surprised to see a fifteen-year-old boy glancing at her with icy blue eyes. As their eyes met, he casually looked away.

Zari grabbed her backpack even more tightly. Though their world had immense magic and technology, there were many threats still lurking around. And she was in no position to get herself into trouble. It was imperative that she got to Lyndon as soon as possible and met with her father, whom she hadn’t seen since…her mother had passed away. She wasn’t feeling very good about it, but there was no other choice. It had been years since she saw either her father or her brother. How she was going to get to them was another hassle.

Are they even going to let me meet my father? What if Zayne decides that he doesn’t want to see me?

A cloud of doubts covered her head, and she decided to close her book shut. With her eyes back at the Greywood passing by, she began to fall into her thoughts. Though she could still feel the eyes on her, the thoughts in her head were enough to push them aside.

It wasn’t just her who felt watched. Spike, the boy sitting across from Zari, also felt as though someone was standing right by his shoulder. Looking up a few rows, he saw a woman dressed in a long trench coat and a hoodie covering her head. She was actively scribbling something on a small notebook, but her hands stopped as soon as she saw his eyes on her. She pulled her hoodie back, revealing the feline ears of a Fellman.

The woman’s tense face excited Spike, and he stretched his cheeks into a huge smile that unnerved her. Spike had noticed her following him over the past few days and had seen her tailing him as he arrived at the train station. She was inexperienced, but he wanted to see how this played out. She lowered her gaze and closed her notepad, acting as though nothing had happened.

The air around Spike was calm, but the enclosed compartment was becoming unbearable for Zari. The eyes on her from the very moment she stepped on the train weren’t moving. They were latched onto her back, yet she couldn’t see anyone until a shadow caught her eye. She turned around and saw a tall, fair-skinned man sitting next to the compartment door.

His sharp jawline, crisp haircut, and broad shoulders told Zari that he was in the military – which one, she couldn’t quite identify. He smiled at her and she suddenly felt at ease. With a faint smile on her face, Zari turned her head around and rested her back again on the seat. The sweet face of the guy was enough to tell her that she had been worrying for no reason. While Zari’s anxiety lessened, the woman in the trench coat began to get uneasy. Her tail started moving and her ears began to twitch.

“Stop it…stop,” she whispered to herself and opened her notebook once again.

Spike - the name was scribbled on the top of the page along with a profile and notes about her observations of him. It looked as though she was stalking the fifteen-year-old boy.

Shape-shifter – a Virage in disguise. The words read right under his name. Looking up at the boy one more time, she grabbed her identity card, peeking from the corner of her notepad, and glanced at it – trainee exorcist – it read with her picture right next to it. She quickly hid it in the middle of the pages and continued looking out the window, thinking about her investigation. If she wanted to pass her exam, she needed to prove what Spike was up to. Though she tried to calm her nerves, there was something she just couldn’t shake away. It wasn’t her fear of getting caught by the boy. It was something else.

Suddenly, Zari noticed a dark object making its way through the dense forest. As she narrowed her eyes, the lights in the train began to flicker. Cold, oppressive air suddenly went through the compartment.

What is that? She didn’t know, and neither was she prepared. As she looked around, she also found the other passengers on edge. At least she wasn’t alone, she thought. Suddenly, a horrible ripping sound went through the train, and Zari felt herself fall.