Ever Heart Chronicles EP.2

The black mist hung over the sharp, ragged mountain edge. The cold caused dew to form on the few flowers that grew in between the unforgiving rocks. Here, where sunlight was seldom seen and emptiness a common sight, lived Luce, a young dark magus. Luce, a young teen with raven black hair, stared eerily at a small bright yellow flower.

“What are you doing?” came a dark but curious voice.

Luce glanced sideways to see her uncle, a tall, serpent-like man standing to the side of her. Luce, with little emotion, sighed, “Uncle… I am observing this flower.”

Her Uncle sneered and stuck his nose up at her, “What a wasteful thing to do! It’s a flower it is simple and uninteresting.” He grabbed her arm and jerked her away back towards their decrepit house. The dark figure began to emerge in the mist and soon it was visible. The windows were covered with broken boards, the walls were sinking inwards just slightly, and the roof looked like it was patched several times over the years. They skulked past the dying plants at the front door and hustled inside.

“There are far better ways for you to spend your time than idly staring at a stupid flower.” Luce stood watching her Uncle fidget and rummage through a stack of books. A small drip caught her attention and she pushed a cup underneath it with her finger. “Don’t know why you want to be sniffing flowers anyway… left me to deal with your daughter... waste of my time…” he muttered as he ruffled through stack after stack of books until he gave a boisterous laugh of victory, and raised an old leather-bound book into the air. He plopped it in her arms as he walked past her and sat down to smoke his pipe. “Read that…” he mumbled.

Luce flipped the pages of the thick book and sighed, “The whole thing?”

Her Uncle looked at her with a cold, piercing stare; to which Luce took with seriousness and shuffled away tucking the book under her arm. She climbed the rickety stairs and walked down the long corridor to her room. She sat on her bed and began reading the pages. She listened as her Uncle mumbled to himself, complained really. All her life Luce had been told what she must do, what her job was, and when she must do it. She had a very small childhood and was now expected to grow up and be an adult when she was still just a child. Luce did as she was told and read the infernal book. It was filled with spells, history, and personal notes from her Father, Ichron, who had comments specifically for her. Later in the evening when she was making dinner her Uncle plopped a pile of leather-bound, strung books on the table and smiled.

“What are these?” Luce asked lacking excitement.

“These, are your father’s journals. He wrote them for you. They carry specific notes, instructions, and everything else you should know.”

Luce lifted one and read the beginning sentence, “My dearest daughter…” Luce snapped the book shut; “Only after death does he refer to me as dearest daughter.”

A grumble came from her uncle, “Now see here… I may not be the nicest of people…”

“You’re a grump Uncle Ixxon.” Luce interrupted.

“Yes… alright, a grump… but your father was smart and talented. He was powerful and so you will be as well. This slump you’re in about him caring about you, loving you? He would not give you so great a task if he did not have immense faith in you.”

Luce shrugged her shoulders, “I’ve read most of his books. What will I learn from these journals?”

Uncle Ixxon smiled, “You will learn how to defeat Magnus’s successor. Your father would have succeeded and come out victorious were it not for betrayal.”

Luce looked down at the journal and nodded, “Very well… for father.”