Chapter 1

The storm raged. Flashes of lighting lit up the sky and loud blood curdling crashes of thunder echoed around the valley. Flavius could see dots of light heading up the cliffs towards the valley. At first, he thought he was seeing things. Lights can’t move on their own. They sped up. He could see they were torches. Held up by men sprinting towards the village. Maybe they were other Diaelo, returning from an adventure, like the ones his father told him about when he was younger …no… they were human…
As they entered the village, they fired missiles at the houses around them, shooting and killing the Diaelo that came out of them. Flavius’ father had also told him of the humans. They feared Diaelo. The diaelo were demons. Pyro shapeshifters. They had been attacked many times before. Each time few survivors were left.
“What ya lookin’ at Flavius?” asked the older of his two little sisters, Averlia.
Flavius swung around, swept Averlia off her feet, scooped his youngest sister Arneya from her cot and ran to tell his parents about the humans.
“Take your sisters up to the Mountain. You’ll be safe there,” his mother demanded.
Flavius obeyed. He told Averlia to hold on to Arneya and himself as tight as she could, and made sure Arneya was still asleep. He ran as fast as he could towards Crystal Mountain spread his wings and flew up. His mother had told him to go as high as possible. He neared the top and stopped by a large cave. He placed his sisters carefully down; looked at the village below them. He could see his house being burn to the ground. Usually, fire would be a good sign for the demonic Diaelo. The human scientists specially created these flames. They would drain any demon of their powers on contact, so they could turn anything to ashes.
His friends were flying up to the caves lower down. He saw few adults.
Flavius closed his eyes. He could hear crying behind him, and turned around to see Averlia with tears streaming down her face and her hands over her right eye.
“Averlia, what’s wrong?”
She was so shocked she could barely breathe.
She lowered her hands and revealed a deep cut on her eye, which was pouring with blood. He ripped a piece of cloth from Arneya’s blanket and began mopping up the blood. Once most of it was mopped up, he was able to see any damage on her eyeball. The cut ran straight through it. A flicker of light caught his attention. He stared for a few seconds and saw a human in the cave. A woman… he knew this mountain was impossible to climb… how could she have gotten up?
“Who are you, human?”
The woman came out of the shadows; Flavius bent down and picked up his sisters, ready to run.
“I am no human. Not like that is of importance to you.”
“Did you do this to my sister?” he nodded towards Averlia and began to back away.
“So what if I did? You and those things you hold in you arms are mere children and are therefore of no use to the world around you.” Flavius put Averlia and Arneya down; he was ready to fight this human. It wouldn’t take much… just a small flame.
“Tell me your name. And if you aren’t human what are you?”
The woman laughed.
“I am a half breed. My name…Esparansa. You must really care for your sisters…”
“You know… if you did do that to my sister, you’ll regret it…” Flavius looked at Averlia. She was staring at her left hand, which was covered in blood.
Esparansa laughed again. “And exactly why is that? You are no more than… 14 years of age? Yes? And your sisters…1 and 3?” Flavius nodded.
“She may be only young, but there is something you should never underestimate…” Averlia began to shake. She looked up at Flavius and he nodded. She looked at Esparansa who was still laughing. She closed her eyes. Flavius had never seen this before. She had only shown it to their parents while practicing with it. Averlia had been born with something very special. It was called the Vay. It was a spirit of pure power, which lived inside her. He didn’t know very much about it, only that it had been part of their family for generations. The blood on Averlia’s hand cleared and the mark of the Vay was exposed. It lit up and Averlia was covered in a black flame. When the fire faded, there stood a young woman who looked very much like his grandmother. Esparansa stopped laughing and drew a sword from her side.
“You don’t expect this trick to scare me?”
The woman that stood where Averlia had been opened her mouth, “this is no trick. What you have in store is far worse than death.”
Her voice echoed around the cave and sent a shiver down Flavius’ spine. By the look on Esparansa’s face, she was fearing what the Vay had in store for her.
It pointed towards her and she sceamedin agony. Flavius had never heard anything like it. like a banshee crossed with a siren. When he looked, the young woman smiled maliciously and clicked her fingers. Esparansa dissapeared, her scream stillechoing around the cave walls. The Vay turned around and looked at Flavius. She crouched down and smiled at him. Flavius suddenly felt a tear run down his face. She wiped it away and smiled at him.
“Be careful Flavius. I’m afraid your parents are dead. You can’t always depend on me. You must learn to defend yourself. Train hard and stick with Diaelo. Don’t depend on humans.” She kissed him on the forehead and was once again surrounded in flames.

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to chapter~2~