Deep into the void of unconsciousness, she drifted into a dream. Though she wasn't very surprised, for this dream visited her more often than not in her sleep. This dream consisted of something she couldn't really begin to fathom.

  She thought to herself: Why this dream again? It's the fourth time this week. Why's it coming more often?

  Soon enough the familiar sequence of scenes began to play, one after the other; Raindrops mixing with a pool of blood, remnants of a broken building, flashes of purple electricity, a blurry-faced man named 'Damon', and a beam of purple light shooting into the sky.

  This dream has haunted her for years, but deciphering it has been shelved in the back of her mind due to lack of interest out of its repetitive manner. Instead, she found it rather irritating and quite disturbing.

  "Nithara... Nithara—"

  "NITHARA!" A voice called out.

  Nithara opened her eyes and felt pain all over, causing her to let out an agonizing scream that was quickly blocked by a pair of hands.

  Cold sweats dripped down her back while she tried to relax and blinked one too many times only to be repeatedly met by a pair of black eyes that belonged to a girl with bust-length white straight hair with bangs.

  Her tan skin radiated a sweet fragrance of candy as her doe eyes stared deep into Nithara's before slowly pulling her hands away from Nithara's mouth.

  She was about to utter her first question when another voice came from the other side of the room.

  "Hey, keep it down, or else the hunters will notice us."

  There knelt another girl with dark brown hair styled in a hime-cut that shone as the moonlight gently touched it.

  Her eyes glowed with a tint of orange, along with the orange hue on the floor where her right hand rested. She was kneeling on one knee, with a posture similar to a trained soldier.

  She carried a sense of calmness and coldness mixed together. The thing that caught Nithara's attention was the two beauty marks perfectly outlining the rim of her left eye.

  Nithara was taken aback by what she was witnessing.

  "You're a topazian!" She shouted.

  The brown haired girl glared at her, irritated by the sudden attention. "Shut up, I'm trying to focus."

  Nithara looked around, confused about where she was, and hastily looked at her arms that were wrapped in bandages from her hands to her forearms, as it should be.

  Suddenly, the girl in front of her spoke, "Don't worry, you're safe here. Feywa over there made this tree house with her ability, so the wandering night hunters wouldn't easily find us while we gathered some stuff from the nearby town for a few days."

  "Also, I didn't feel the need to change the bandages in your arms because it was neatly done and new, but I've patched up all of your other injuries." She had a wide smile plastered on her face.

  Nithara's brows furrowed a bit. Injuries? I was bleeding internally, and most of the blood in my clothing wasn't mine. What does she mean by injuries?.

  But after a feel around her body, small patches of gauze were neatly plastered all over the stinging parts of her body.

  "The hunters are far enough to notice us. A Nyct storm is about to start, and we can leave tomorrow morning." Feywa spoke cooly as she stood up and walked towards a pile of bags to lay down.

  The two girls gave off different energies, leaving Nithara a little perplexed about their relationship.

  "Don't mind Feywa, she's always like that." The girl in front of Nithara spoke to excuse her companion's behaviour.

  "Feywa? What a lovely name." Nithara mumbled to herself.

  "I'm Eruana Haloren, by the way. Nice to meet you." The white-haired girl gave Nithara a big smile and offered her hand for a handshake.

  Nithara kindly accepted it as she replied, "I'm Nithara Darth, nice to meet you too—wait—weren't you the one waking me up earlier? You were calling out my name. How..?" Nithara couldn't hide the confusion on her face.

  "Oh, you don't remember?" Eruana asked back, slightly tilting her head, also being confused about the situation.

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  Feywa, who was in the corner of the room, suddenly spoke. "You practically announced your name to the whole town yesterday."

  Nithara's eyes widened in shock, while Eruana scratched the back of her head, letting out a forced laugh.

  "Yeah, you sorta went wild back there, your injuries can speak for themselves, you had this purple glow as the sky turned dark like a Nyct storm was about to burst in the middle of the day."

  "Although, you did make a huge mess, that's why we had to budge in and get you, lightning struck everywhere and the hunters were already attacking you, then you were surrounded by this purple light that seemed to attract the lightning from the sky—"

  Something clicked in Eruana's head.

  With widened eyes, she slowly raised her arms and grabbed Nithara's shoulders.

  "You're an Amethian!"

  She quickly stood up and ran towards Feywa, shaking her friend like a kid begging for a toy. "Feywa, hey hey, wake up, she's an Amethian, can you believe it?"

  Feywa simply didn't budge before opening her eyes and replied, "I know, I'm not the slow one between us, remember? Took you long enough to realize."

  Eruana was a little hurt by Feywa's words, dropping her head low, her lips quivering before being forced into a smile as she turned towards Nithara.

  She sat back down in front of Nithara, took a deep breath, and put on a jolly facade to start a conversation. Nithara took this chance to ask away.

  "Could you please tell me exactly what happened back there? I really don't remember anything."

  Eruana was more than glad to tell her everything.

  "Feywa and I were just about to finish our shopping, when suddenly, a loud commotion erupted in the town plaza. We were a few blocks away, and at first, we didn't want to get involved, but then we heard someone say, 'A magic wielder has invaded the town!'. So naturally, we had to check things out."

  "Even before we arrived at the scene, we already felt a great fluctuation of both mana and spiritual power. Like I said earlier, it was the middle of the day, but it looked like a Nyct storm was about to appear. You were surrounded by a purple glow, and lightning struck near and far." Eruana couldn't help her hands from moving in exaggeration.

  Then her face went glum with the next words. "When we came back this morning, we saw a boy being carried out of their home."

  "They said he was struck by one of your lightning and died a few hours later. I even saw his prosthetic leg hang out of the carrier as they took his body away."

  Something churned in Nithara's stomach. He remembered the boy from that day.

  It can't be. She refused to believe it.

  Nithara spoke with obvious guilt, "Shit. Shit. Shit. Not again. It was all my fault, if only I had full control over my ability." She ran her hand through her hair as she avoided eye contact with Eruana.

  Silence engulfed the tree house.

  Wanting to lighten up the mood and not press Nithara's guilt any further, Eruana said, "I really like your hair. How'd you manage to grow your rat tail that long and thick? I'd get caught on it if I were you, haha."

  Nithara eased up a bit, then played with the end of her braided rat tail as a memory flash through her mind. "The last time it was cut was when I was five. Since then, i just let it grow and cut the rest into a long pixie cut to even out the effort of taking care of it."

  Eruana was quite in awe.

  In that moment, a pair of small eyes emerged from the nook of her neck. It caught Nithara off guard, making her jump back a little.

  "Oh, sorry, this is my pet snake, Marcy," Eruana said, as she offered her hand for the snake to crawl out on.

  The snake was small and white, which was perfectly camouflaged in her hair all this time.

  "So Nithara, where are you headed anyways? Your destination doesn't seem to be far, based on your light get-up and how little your stuff is. And winter is near , but you've got no winter related stuff." Eruana asked.

  "I'm just curious: If by any chance you're going the same way we are, we can take you with us, so you'll have company."

  "Oh, I'm trying to locate the Undermines. I'm at a rough start, and I don't really know where it exactly is, but I'm desperate to find answers about my ability, and I caught info that I can get help from there." Nithara replied.

  Eruana was happy at first, but by the end of Nithara's statement, her smile gradually faded away and was replaced by a look of concern.

  "Ok, ok—" She raised both her hands out in front of her as an act of trying to sort the information she had taken in.

  "Firstly, we are headed there too for a different reason. We are more than happy to take you along since we have some lead as to where it's located. Second, its real name is Ophel's Valley. Calling it the Undermines makes it sound like you're from the West. Are you?"

  Eruana raised an eyebrow before continuing. "On the other hand, what do you mean by 'find answers about your ability'?"

  "Hey, don't jump to conclusions, Eruana, you're the only one who's happy about that idea." Feywa chirped in, only to be met with an eye roll from Eruana.

  Just when Nithara was about to answer, a sudden strong gust of wind came in through the tree houses' entrance. Hitting Nithara, who was on the other side of the room.

  Hands shaking, Nithara held her head, pulling her hair till her scalp ached, while her eyes flickered with a bright purple glow.

  "No—Not again! No no please— Leave my head already!!'' Nithara was shouting, flipping around and banging her head on the floor.

  Eruana and Feywa quickly stood up. With the latter moving herself in front of her companion as they gathered their mana.

  Soon enough, the bright colours of yellow and orange blended with the purple light emitted by Nithara.

  They stood on guard, eyes shining bright and sharp. They were prepared for a fight as if the person in front of them would attack at any moment.

  Well, from their point of view, the person in front of them was a complete stranger!! Anyone would react the same way as they did.

  Nithara kept on turning and rolling. Sweats formed all over her body as her purple glow grew brighter and brighter.

  Then, within the blink of an eye, everything stopped; the purple glow, the groans and screams of agony from Nithara, and the struggle she fought.

  She simply sat there, limbs laid flat on the floor as if she were a robot that had just been turned off.

  Eruana breathed a sigh of relief, setting her guard down and simply letting out a nervous laugh. ''Well, that's certainly something you don't see every day.''

  However, Feywa did not move a limb, still standing on guard, and continued to concentrate on her ability in preparation.

  Abruptly, a horrid mixture of random voices came from where Nithara sat, ''SLAUGHTER THEM AS THEY'VE SLAUGHTERED YOUR KIND!!"